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Hiroshima National Peace Memorial Hall registers photograph of Hiroko Kajiyama, inspiration for A-bomb Dome preservation movement

(by Junji Akechi, Staff Writer)

The Hiroshima National Peace Memorial Hall for the Atomic Bomb Victims, located in the city’s Naka Ward, announced on April 6 that it had registered a photograph of Hiroko Kajiyama (1944–1960), who died 15 years after the atomic bombing of acute leukemia. A diary written by Ms. Kajiyama prompted the movement to preserve the A-bomb Dome.

At the time of the atomic bombing, Ms. Kajiyama was one year of age and at her home in Hiratsuka-cho (now part of Naka Ward), about 1.3 kilometers from the hypocenter. She was admitted to the hospital for emergency treatment in March 1960, when she was a first-year high school student. She died of acute leukemia the following month, April.

On August 6 the year before she died, she had written in her diary that “only the forlorn Industrial Promotion Hall [now, the A-bomb Dome] will continue to convey to the world the story of the horror of the atomic bombing.”

This entry inspired elementary, junior high, and high school students to form the Hiroshima Paper Crane Club and launch a campaign to preserve the A-bomb Dome. This campaign developed into a joint public-private sector movement, resulting in the Hiroshima City Council passing a resolution in 1966 aimed at preservation of the structure.

The photograph was provided by Masahiro Terada, 76, a resident of Asaminami Ward. He was Ms. Kajiyama’s classmate in junior high school. In December last year, Mr. Terada and two other classmates completed a book on Ms. Kajiyama’s life and the A-bomb Dome preservation movement. “I hope many people will come to know about Ms. Kajiyama through her photograph,” said Mr. Terada.

(Originally published on April 7, 2020)

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