Silent Witness

by Kyoko Niiyama, Staff Writer

The eyeglass frames have been bent out of shape. The slightly deformed lens of one side is separated from the frame and marked with innumerable scratches. The eyeglasses are said to have been stuck to the burnt head of Moto Mosoro, then 54, who died in the atomic bombing at her home in the area of Hirosemoto-machi (in Hiroshima’s present-day Naka Ward).

Toshiko Saeki, the fourth daughter of Ms. Mosoro, did not directly experience the atomic bombing, given that she was staying at an older sister’s home in a suburb of Hiroshima where her child had been evacuated, starting the day prior to the bombing. In the afternoon of August 6, after the bombing, Ms. Saeki entered the city and walked around searching for her family, including her mother.

On September 6, one month after the atomic bombing, Ms. Saeki suffered acute symptoms of exposure to radiation due to her repeated visits to the city ruins. Returning from the city, her brother in law presented Ms. Saeki with a parcel wrapped in cloth. He said, “Your mother is in here.” Her mother’s head turned out to be wrapped inside. Her eyes and nose had been burned away, with only part of the rear of her head remaining. Despite everything, however, Ms. Saeki was able to recognize the eyeglasses.

With the knowledge that the gentle mother she had known would never return, Ms. Saeki said she had been devastated by the sight of her mother’s head. She lost 13 relatives in the atomic bombing, including an older brother and sister.

Ms. Saeki paid frequent visits to the Atomic Bomb Memorial Mound, located in Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park in the city’s Naka Ward, based on her regret that she had been unable to do anything for the wounded seeking help at that time. She engaged in work to locate bereaved families for the unclaimed remains of about 70,000 victims, arguing that conveying the voices of the voiceless victims was a responsibility of people who had experienced that day. She also continued to clean the mound area for more than 40 years and to share her experience in the atomic bombing with tourists and students on field trips who would visit the park.

“I want to have as many people as possible understand the feelings of A-bomb survivors like myself as well as victims of the bombing,” said Ms. Saiki, a belief she held until her death at the age of 97 in 2017. Ms. Saeki donated the left half of her mother’s glasses to the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum. She explained that the right half of the glasses had been placed in her mother’s grave as a keepsake.

(Originally published on August 9, 2021)