×

Hiroshima Insight

Hiroshima Technical High School

192 first-year students were killed in the atomic bombing

Hiroshima Technical High School [officially, “Hiroshima Prefectural Hiroshima Technical High School”] was known as Hiroshima Technical School [officially, “Hiroshima Prefectural Hiroshima Technical School”] at the time of the atomic bombing. Now located in the Deshio district of Minami Ward, back then it was located in the Sendamachi area, part of Naka Ward. Today the Hiroshima Prefectural Library stands at that spot.

According to a book outlining the school’s 80-year history, a total of 214 members of the school community, including students, teachers, and staff, became victims of the atomic bomb. In particular, 192 first-year students and three teachers were helping to create a firebreak in present-day Nakajimacho, about 600 meters from the hypocenter. Afterward, only a few of the students’ bodies could be identified.

After the war, a wooden memorial was constructed by the main gate of the school. Then, in 1962, when the school moved to its current site, a new monument was built to comfort the souls of the dead. In 1987, another monument, this one bearing the names of the victims, was completed at the school, while a monument for those who went missing was newly made near the spot where the students were killed.