Reporter’s View: Handling the many ‘voids’ with care
Feb. 26, 2021
by Miho Kuwajima, Staff Writer
“There is a monument I sometimes stop by during lulls in my reporting work. The ‘Hiroshima Prefectural Staff A-Bomb Victims Memorial’ stands on the banks of the Honkawa River, just south of Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park. After putting my hands together in prayer at a granite marker on the site of the former prefectural offices, I gently run my hands over the panel listing the names of more than 1,100 people in search of ‘Takako Shimooka.’
To this day, the whereabouts of my grandmother’s sister are unknown and her remains undiscovered. She was 17 at the time. The old prefectural offices, about 900 meters from the hypocenter, were completely destroyed except for the entryway gatepost. One month after the bombing, staff members gathered human remains from among the ruins in ‘10 apple boxes,’ burying seven of them near the entrance area.
I first learned of the existence of ‘Takako’ about 13 years ago. Because I was involved in reporting on A-bombing and peace issues, my father and other relatives revealed the story to me as I worked to confront the atomic bombing experiences of my grandmother, who had died in 2002. I had no recollection of my grandmother herself ever telling me of her experiences in the atomic bombing.
Since that time, I began collecting related materials in search of clues. The ‘Hiroshima Kencho Genbaku Hisaishi’ (in English, Chronicle of A-bomb Damage to the Hiroshima Prefectural Government Offices) that I found at a used bookstore indicated that Takako had been a document clerk in the Hiroshima Prefectural governor’s secretariat office. A photo album that my grandmother had cherished throughout her life contained only a single photograph of Takako in a school uniform.
Even now, more than 75 years after the atomic bombing, many people continue to seek traces of relatives lost to the bombing. They persist in such efforts perhaps because even traces of information provide some ‘evidence of life.’ Images of each of the bereaved families overlap and come into view as they endeavor to investigate and follow the footsteps of their loved ones. In my reporting, I work to understand each and every one of the missing, digging up historical facts and filling in the ‘voids’ that still remain in Hiroshima.”
“There is a monument I sometimes stop by during lulls in my reporting work. The ‘Hiroshima Prefectural Staff A-Bomb Victims Memorial’ stands on the banks of the Honkawa River, just south of Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park. After putting my hands together in prayer at a granite marker on the site of the former prefectural offices, I gently run my hands over the panel listing the names of more than 1,100 people in search of ‘Takako Shimooka.’
To this day, the whereabouts of my grandmother’s sister are unknown and her remains undiscovered. She was 17 at the time. The old prefectural offices, about 900 meters from the hypocenter, were completely destroyed except for the entryway gatepost. One month after the bombing, staff members gathered human remains from among the ruins in ‘10 apple boxes,’ burying seven of them near the entrance area.
I first learned of the existence of ‘Takako’ about 13 years ago. Because I was involved in reporting on A-bombing and peace issues, my father and other relatives revealed the story to me as I worked to confront the atomic bombing experiences of my grandmother, who had died in 2002. I had no recollection of my grandmother herself ever telling me of her experiences in the atomic bombing.
Since that time, I began collecting related materials in search of clues. The ‘Hiroshima Kencho Genbaku Hisaishi’ (in English, Chronicle of A-bomb Damage to the Hiroshima Prefectural Government Offices) that I found at a used bookstore indicated that Takako had been a document clerk in the Hiroshima Prefectural governor’s secretariat office. A photo album that my grandmother had cherished throughout her life contained only a single photograph of Takako in a school uniform.
Even now, more than 75 years after the atomic bombing, many people continue to seek traces of relatives lost to the bombing. They persist in such efforts perhaps because even traces of information provide some ‘evidence of life.’ Images of each of the bereaved families overlap and come into view as they endeavor to investigate and follow the footsteps of their loved ones. In my reporting, I work to understand each and every one of the missing, digging up historical facts and filling in the ‘voids’ that still remain in Hiroshima.”
