Ventilation of register for A-bomb victims is globally live-streamed first time
May 16, 2024
by Minami Yamashita, Staff Writer
On May 15, staff of the City of Hiroshima worked on ventilation of 126 volumes of a register with the names of A-bomb victims housed in a stone chest beneath the Cenotaph for the A-bomb Victims in Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park in Naka Ward, to remove moisture. The operation was live-streamed on the city’s official YouTube channel for the first time. An edited video will be also posted in future.
The ventilation work began after 14 employees of the city offered a silent prayer at 8:15 a.m., the time of atomic bomb explosion. Under the sunny blue sky, volumes of the register were taken from the chest and laid out on a white cloth placed in front of the cenotaph. The employees carefully turned pages of the register made of Japanese traditional paper one by one and checked their condition. They were then brought back to the stone chest.
Koma Bando, 14, third-year student at Towa Junior High School in Kaga, Ishikawa Prefecture, who came to the city for school excursion and watched the ventilation, said, “By looking at the many volumes of the register, I felt such a large number of people died. I want to make sure the same situation will never occur again.”
One hundred twenty-four volumes of the register have listed the names, date of death, and age of death for the 339, 227 A-bomb victims in Hiroshima confirmed to have died by August 5 last year. Another separate volume has the registered names of 13 victims of the Nagasaki atomic bombing whose bereaved families hoped for the registration, and an additional volume bears only the words “Many people whose names are unknown.” Names of the A-bomb victims who have died or been newly confirmed to have died since August 6 of last year will be added to the register beginning early next month, which will be then placed inside the stone chest beneath the cenotaph at the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Ceremony on August 6.
(Originally published on May 16, 2024)
On May 15, staff of the City of Hiroshima worked on ventilation of 126 volumes of a register with the names of A-bomb victims housed in a stone chest beneath the Cenotaph for the A-bomb Victims in Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park in Naka Ward, to remove moisture. The operation was live-streamed on the city’s official YouTube channel for the first time. An edited video will be also posted in future.
The ventilation work began after 14 employees of the city offered a silent prayer at 8:15 a.m., the time of atomic bomb explosion. Under the sunny blue sky, volumes of the register were taken from the chest and laid out on a white cloth placed in front of the cenotaph. The employees carefully turned pages of the register made of Japanese traditional paper one by one and checked their condition. They were then brought back to the stone chest.
Koma Bando, 14, third-year student at Towa Junior High School in Kaga, Ishikawa Prefecture, who came to the city for school excursion and watched the ventilation, said, “By looking at the many volumes of the register, I felt such a large number of people died. I want to make sure the same situation will never occur again.”
One hundred twenty-four volumes of the register have listed the names, date of death, and age of death for the 339, 227 A-bomb victims in Hiroshima confirmed to have died by August 5 last year. Another separate volume has the registered names of 13 victims of the Nagasaki atomic bombing whose bereaved families hoped for the registration, and an additional volume bears only the words “Many people whose names are unknown.” Names of the A-bomb victims who have died or been newly confirmed to have died since August 6 of last year will be added to the register beginning early next month, which will be then placed inside the stone chest beneath the cenotaph at the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Ceremony on August 6.
(Originally published on May 16, 2024)
