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Hiroshima Insight

Hiroshima Jissen Girls’ High School

Voices crying out in pain

In 1941, the school was founded as the “Hiroshima Commercial Jissen Girls’ School” in the village of Inokuchi (in today’s Nishi Ward). It was established by Hiroshima Gas and Electric, the forerunner of the Hiroshima Gas Company (located in Minami Ward) and the Hiroshima Electric Railway Company (in Naka Ward) to contribute to the local community. In 1943, the name of the school was changed to “Hiroshima Jissen Girls’ High School.”

According to records of the A-bomb damage, many people who had been wounded in the bombing sought refuge in Inokuchi, turning the school into a relief station.

The students of the girls’ school run by the Hiroshima Electric Railway, located in Minamimachi (part of present-day Minami Ward), fled to Hiroshima Jissen Girls’ High School in the wake of the A-bomb blast.

A book titled The Girls Who Made the Streetcars Run, a collection of testimonies from students of the girls’ school, describes terrible scenes at the makeshift relief station: “The school was full of burned and injured students, crying out in pain”; “Scores of people died every day”; and “The smell of burnt flesh and blood in the auditorium was awful.”

After the war, the school became Suzugamine Girls’ Junior High and High School.