Silent Witness: A nurse’s cap with Red Cross emblem and armband of nurse who tirelessly engaged in relief efforts
Apr. 18, 2022
by Miho Kuwajima, Staff Writer
Emblazoned with a Red Cross emblem, a navy blue cap worn by trainees at entrance and graduation ceremonies was found in the ruins of the Hiroshima Red Cross Hospital in Sendamachi (now part of Hiroshima’s Naka Ward) and held on to by Teruko Ueno (née Morimoto), 92, a resident of the city’s Nishi Ward. Immediately after the atomic bombing, Ms. Ueno engaged in relief efforts as a student nurse.
Originally from what was known as the village of Yuki-cho (now part of Hiroshima’s Saeki Ward), Ms. Ueno was a second-year student in a nurse training facility attached to the hospital. At the time of the atomic bombing, she was entering the dormitory with silverware sterilized in boiling water to prepare a meal for a patient with dysentery. She was buried under rubble but managed to crawl out by following a beam of light that had reached her.
Of the staff working at the hospital, located about 1.5 kilometers from the hypocenter, 51 physicians, nurses, and others died in the bombing. Ms. Ueno, then 15, placed a band on her arm and joined Dr. Nagao Irie and other workers in tirelessly treating the many wounded.
“With no medical supplies, all we could do was cover the wounds with gauze dipped in diluted rivanol [used as an antiseptic]. I will never forget the sight of a baby trying to suckle from its dead mother’s breast,” Ms. Ueno said. Innumerable bodies of the dead were being cremated in an empty lot nearby. “Families of the deceased would thank me profusely when I was able to return the bones of fingers of the cremated in small bags used for X-rays.”
In 1999, she donated the cap of the unknown owner and her own armband to the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum. “The lives of all human beings must be respected, and those who are suffering must be extended a hand regardless of what side they are on.” That principle is shared by Red Cross organizations across the world. Ms. Ueno’s oldest daughter, Tomoko Watanabe, 68, has carried on her mother’s wish, pouring her energy into peace activities. “We’ve witnessed the war in Ukraine. War must be eliminated.”
(Originally published on April 18, 2022)
Emblazoned with a Red Cross emblem, a navy blue cap worn by trainees at entrance and graduation ceremonies was found in the ruins of the Hiroshima Red Cross Hospital in Sendamachi (now part of Hiroshima’s Naka Ward) and held on to by Teruko Ueno (née Morimoto), 92, a resident of the city’s Nishi Ward. Immediately after the atomic bombing, Ms. Ueno engaged in relief efforts as a student nurse.
Originally from what was known as the village of Yuki-cho (now part of Hiroshima’s Saeki Ward), Ms. Ueno was a second-year student in a nurse training facility attached to the hospital. At the time of the atomic bombing, she was entering the dormitory with silverware sterilized in boiling water to prepare a meal for a patient with dysentery. She was buried under rubble but managed to crawl out by following a beam of light that had reached her.
Of the staff working at the hospital, located about 1.5 kilometers from the hypocenter, 51 physicians, nurses, and others died in the bombing. Ms. Ueno, then 15, placed a band on her arm and joined Dr. Nagao Irie and other workers in tirelessly treating the many wounded.
“With no medical supplies, all we could do was cover the wounds with gauze dipped in diluted rivanol [used as an antiseptic]. I will never forget the sight of a baby trying to suckle from its dead mother’s breast,” Ms. Ueno said. Innumerable bodies of the dead were being cremated in an empty lot nearby. “Families of the deceased would thank me profusely when I was able to return the bones of fingers of the cremated in small bags used for X-rays.”
In 1999, she donated the cap of the unknown owner and her own armband to the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum. “The lives of all human beings must be respected, and those who are suffering must be extended a hand regardless of what side they are on.” That principle is shared by Red Cross organizations across the world. Ms. Ueno’s oldest daughter, Tomoko Watanabe, 68, has carried on her mother’s wish, pouring her energy into peace activities. “We’ve witnessed the war in Ukraine. War must be eliminated.”
(Originally published on April 18, 2022)
