Mushroom Club members with microcephaly caused by A-bombing celebrate 76th birthdays, cheerfully catch up with each other’s lives
Sep. 20, 2022
by Fumiyasu Miyano, Staff Writer
On September 18, the Kinoko-kai (Mushroom Club), a group of people with microcephaly, a condition marked by a small head size caused by the atomic bombing, and their families, held its annual birthday party both online and at Kanda Sansou, a care facility located in Hiroshima’s Higashi Ward. Celebrating their 76th birthdays with their supporters, five microcephalic A-bomb survivors from Hiroshima, Hatsukaichi City, and Yokohama City caught up with each other’s lives.
Hiroe Kawashimo, 76, a resident of Hiroshima’s Higashi Ward, used a fan to put out the candles on a pumpkin cake. She showed the other celebrants images of a cat and acorns she had drawn with colored pencils. Smiling, she said, “Sometimes I become so absorbed in my drawing that I stay up until morning and go to bed late.”
At the party venue were on display photographs of two microcephalic A-bomb survivors from Hiroshima City who had died in the past year — Toshiharu Tomita and Kazuko Sakuma. Participants in the party observed a moment of silence for the two who had died.
Microcephaly is caused by exposure to powerful radiation in the mother’s womb, and many such patients have intellectual and physical disabilities. The Mushroom Club, which was formed in 1965, once had 25 microcephalic A-bomb survivors as members, a number that has now declined to 12.
(Originally published on September 20, 2022)
On September 18, the Kinoko-kai (Mushroom Club), a group of people with microcephaly, a condition marked by a small head size caused by the atomic bombing, and their families, held its annual birthday party both online and at Kanda Sansou, a care facility located in Hiroshima’s Higashi Ward. Celebrating their 76th birthdays with their supporters, five microcephalic A-bomb survivors from Hiroshima, Hatsukaichi City, and Yokohama City caught up with each other’s lives.
Hiroe Kawashimo, 76, a resident of Hiroshima’s Higashi Ward, used a fan to put out the candles on a pumpkin cake. She showed the other celebrants images of a cat and acorns she had drawn with colored pencils. Smiling, she said, “Sometimes I become so absorbed in my drawing that I stay up until morning and go to bed late.”
At the party venue were on display photographs of two microcephalic A-bomb survivors from Hiroshima City who had died in the past year — Toshiharu Tomita and Kazuko Sakuma. Participants in the party observed a moment of silence for the two who had died.
Microcephaly is caused by exposure to powerful radiation in the mother’s womb, and many such patients have intellectual and physical disabilities. The Mushroom Club, which was formed in 1965, once had 25 microcephalic A-bomb survivors as members, a number that has now declined to 12.
(Originally published on September 20, 2022)
