LAIE, Hawaii — Kats Kajiyama will never forgot the first time he saw his father cry. It was late August 1945 and his mother had just died — a victim of an atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima, Japan, some 20 days earlier.

In 1945 family photo above, he sits to the left of his mother, Yoshiko Kajiyama. His brother, Masahiro, is on his left, and sister, Miyako, is to his mother's right.

Photo by Julie Dockstader Heaps

Kats Kajiyama displays some of his Kirie artwork in his office at BYU-Hawaii.

"Usually, a Japanese man never sheds tears, but my father went out of the house and was crying. That was, of course, sad. That's how it happened," a soft-spoken Brother Kajiyama recalls today.

The it he speaks of was the dropping of an atomic bomb on his home town on Aug. 6, 1945, when he was 6 years old. On that day, which he speaks of with quiet descriptions, he also lost his beloved and idolized older brother. On that day, everything the little Japanese boy who liked to play Samurai warrior knew was — literally — turned inside out.

And yet there is no bitterness, no hatred. Today, he teaches Japanese at BYU-Hawaii, speaks with joy of his wife and three children and tells of his conversion to Christianity and his baptism into The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He is also a prize-winning author and artist.

"The testimony of Jesus Christ means everything in my life," he said while sitting in his office at BYU-Hawaii. "Without Jesus Christ, I don't think our life is as happy as we are. (The gospel is) the core of my existence and life and happiness. My wife and I often say, 'We have the gospel.' "

One could say Brother Kajiyama's life depicts the promises found in Isaiah 61:3: "To appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them beauty from ashes. . . ."

"It was summer time," he related, remembering that day nearly 59 years ago. "That morning, my brother did not want to go to school. This was the first time my brother made a fuss that he didn't want to go to school."

The Kajiyama home was about six miles from "ground zero" in Hiroshima in southern Japan. His father, Tadatsugu Kajiyama, had finished his military service during the war and was working for a shipping company. That day, he was on a ship about two miles out to sea. His wife, Yoshiko, was heading to her service job with a neighbor as she scooted her oldest, 12-year-old Masahiro, off to school, along with daughter, 9-year-old Miyako, and 6-year-old Kats.

Before school started, Kats and his friends were playing outside when the city's air raid siren sounded. Everyone headed indoors. The first thing the school boy saw was a flash of light. "The whole thing rumbled and everything shattered upon us. I was under a big wooden door."

The boy kicked off the door and ran outside. "Everything was crushed and burning. Telephone poles were broken. I decided to run to my home."

On the way, he saw people running around in chaos, some were burned. When he reached his home, he found the windows blown out and the structure tilted from the force of the blast. A neighbor woman saw the frightened child and took him in. A short time later, he heard his mother calling his name.

"I couldn't recognize her. Her face was swollen, her hair was burned and her clothes were burned. I still remember that moment," Brother Kajiyama said quietly. He described how they went to a nearby hospital, where there was "a big yard filled with thousands of people, all moaning, groaning and crying. Nurses were running around, doctors were running around. There were not enough people to help."

His father found his wife and son and took them to a neighbor's home. Soon, daughter Miyako returned, but not Masahiro. Leaving his wife in the care of two nurses who lived in the neighborhood, Kats' father went in search of his oldest child.

All he brought home were Masahiro's notebook with his name printed on it and one sock with his name stitched on one side. The boy whom everyone liked and who protected his little brother from bullies and took him to see Samurai movies was one of 140,000 who died that terrible day and in the aftermath.

Some three weeks later, Yoshiko Kajiyama whispered to her husband and daughter, "Please take care of my son." And she was gone.

Brother Kajiyama recalled, "I thought if I prayed hard my mom and brother would come back. Of course, it never happened."

His father remarried, to a woman who lost her husband in the bomb. She had a son from that marriage. Soon, two more children were welcomed to the family. But Brother Kajiyama describes those years as "trying years. After both my mother's and brother's deaths, I was lonely and sad."

And he was scared of Americans — considering who had dropped the bomb that destroyed his family. It is, thus, ironic that it was an American missionary with a "beautiful, big smile" that drew the 16-year-old Japanese youth out of his shell on a streetcar in Hiroshima. The two often rode the same car and soon became friends. One day, the missionary, Elder Gary Roper, invited Kats Kajiyama to Mutual.

At first, he thought the story of Joseph Smith was a "fairy tale." But two years later, after extensive study and prayer, and an emotional experience listening to the mission president speak at a district conference, Kats Kajiyama was baptized. It was 1957, 12 years after the bomb. A few years later, at age 22, he was serving a mission in his homeland.

It was during that time the tragedy of Hiroshima struck again. His stepmother died of leukemia, thought to be the result of radiation poisoning. The young man threw himself into his missionary work. In fact, his last month was spent in Hiroshima, where he and his companion baptized six people.

Once home, he began hearing about the Church College of Hawaii (now BYU-Hawaii) from LDS friends. In 1962, he left his homeland. He attended both BYU-Hawaii and BYU in Provo, Utah, where he graduated with a degree in art. On May 26, 1967, he married Hilda Yasumoto in the Salt Lake Temple.

Returning to Hawaii to stay, they reared three children: Ken, 35, who served a mission in Kobe, Japan; and twins, Nicole and Jennifer, 23, who served in Hong Kong and Nagoya, Japan, respectively, and who are now law students at BYU in Provo.

Today, aside from teaching Japanese to students from throughout the world, Brother Kajiyama is an acclaimed artist in the ancient art of Kirie, the intricate art of paper-cutting. A self-taught master, Brother Kajiyama's 1998 book, Maui and His Magical Deeds, which is self-illustrated, won the Best Book of the Year in Hawaii and Best Illustrations by the Hawaii Book Publishers Association.

He loves the happiness and peace he gains from creating beauty. None of his art reflects what he saw as a boy. But Brother Kajiyama's greatest joy is found in his family and in the gospel of Jesus Christ. He has done the temple work for his mother and brother and some 73 of his ancestors.

He goes back to Hiroshima every few years. He has visited the museum in Hiroshima dedicated to Aug. 6, 1945. But every time he does he gets sick. "One day I was watching television and they were showing about Hiroshima. I got a severe headache."

Why is he not bitter? "I think the gospel has a lot to do with it," he answers.

When offered condolences for the loss of his family, he quietly responded, "That's a part of history and part of sacrifice."

E-mail to: julied@desnews.com