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Drawings by school children from 1948 on display in Hiroshima exhibition

by Takayuki Kamo, Staff Writer

An exhibition linked to the atomic bombing of Hiroshima opened at the Tomita Gallery in Naka Ward on November 5. On display are replicas of drawings and works of calligraphy made by students at Honkawa Elementary School in Naka Ward then sent to a church in the United States in 1948, three years after the atomic bombing. The exhibition, which will close on November 10, is open from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Admission is free.

After the war, the works by children at Honkawa Elementary School were mailed to a church in Washington D.C. to express gratitude for the school supplies that the church had sent to the school. They were found at the church in 2006 and temporarily returned to the school in 2010, with replicas of the works also provided to the school. A committee organized by alumni of Honkawa Elementary School borrowed these replicas from the school to hold the exhibition in this 70th year since the atomic bombing.

Forty-eight drawings, which include depictions of games that were played at the school sports festival, as well as pictures of flowers and works of calligraphy, are on display. The committee is also showing a documentary film which tells the story of how they were discovered at the church and then returned temporarily to the school.

As a child, Toshimi Ishida, now 74 and a resident of Naka Ward, made a drawing of children playing under cherry trees. “I want people to know that children felt a strong will to go on with their lives after the war and that we interacted with Americans through our drawings,” he said.

(Originally published on November 6, 2015)

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