According to a townsman's document, "Mishikayono Monokatari"(A story of what I saw in life), the misery was that "they stabbed to death men and women including old people and babies and the number of miserable people who lost their parents, whose children were captured, or who parted their partners were beyond number."
ある町人が残した記録「見しかよの物かたり」には「男、女のへだてなく、老ひたるも、みどりごも目の当たりにて刺し殺し、あるいは親を失ひ子を捕られ、夫婦の中も離ればなれになりゆくことの哀れさ、その数を知らず」とその悲惨さが語られている。