Documenting Hiroshima of 1945: August 17, people in northern Hiroshima Prefecture also suffered damages
Aug. 17, 2024
by Kyosuke Mizukawa, Senior Staff Writer
On August 17, 1945, two days after the Emperor’s announcement of the end to the war, there were some students on a train platform in Hiroshima Station set to return to their homes after being demobilized from their jobs in military factories. A photograph of the students was taken by Takashi Saeki, a member of the photography department at the Domei News Agency’s Osaka Branch who died in 1997 at the age of 82. Shoichi Mitsushima, who died in 2018 at the age of 89, came forward while still alive to claim that he was in the photo.
Mr. Mitsushima was 16 at the time and a fourth-year student at Miyoshi Junior High School (present-day Miyoshi High School, in Miyoshi City). According to his personal notes, he had been mobilized to work at the Kure Naval Arsenal in Kure City starting in the summer of 1944 and was living in a dormitory. On the morning of August 6, while digging a hole into which he was to place materials and products for protection from air raids, he saw the mushroom cloud that arose after the atomic bombing. On August 17, he headed to his family home in the area of Hiwa-cho (in present-day Shobara City), in northern Hiroshima Prefecture, passing through Hiroshima Station.
However, when he reached his home, he was confronted with the reality of damage caused by the bombing. In his notes he wrote, “A new tragedy I never could have imagined awaited me. It was the sight of my brother, three years older than I, who was gasping and groaning as if in death’s grasp.”
His older brother, Taro Mitsushima, who died in 2015 at the age of 88, was then working as a substitute teacher at the National School in Hiwa-cho but had visited Hiroshima on August 6 to obtain a supply of calligraphy paper for use by children at the school. He had been exposed to the bombing’s thermal rays in the vicinity of the Senda-machi area (in Hiroshima’s present-day Naka Ward), about 1.5 kilometers from the hypocenter, suffering severe burns to his face that made it nearly impossible for him to open his mouth.
The damage to some members of the public from the bombing extended as far as the northern reaches of Hiroshima Prefecture, far from Hiroshima City.
(Originally published on August 17, 2024)
On August 17, 1945, two days after the Emperor’s announcement of the end to the war, there were some students on a train platform in Hiroshima Station set to return to their homes after being demobilized from their jobs in military factories. A photograph of the students was taken by Takashi Saeki, a member of the photography department at the Domei News Agency’s Osaka Branch who died in 1997 at the age of 82. Shoichi Mitsushima, who died in 2018 at the age of 89, came forward while still alive to claim that he was in the photo.
Mr. Mitsushima was 16 at the time and a fourth-year student at Miyoshi Junior High School (present-day Miyoshi High School, in Miyoshi City). According to his personal notes, he had been mobilized to work at the Kure Naval Arsenal in Kure City starting in the summer of 1944 and was living in a dormitory. On the morning of August 6, while digging a hole into which he was to place materials and products for protection from air raids, he saw the mushroom cloud that arose after the atomic bombing. On August 17, he headed to his family home in the area of Hiwa-cho (in present-day Shobara City), in northern Hiroshima Prefecture, passing through Hiroshima Station.
However, when he reached his home, he was confronted with the reality of damage caused by the bombing. In his notes he wrote, “A new tragedy I never could have imagined awaited me. It was the sight of my brother, three years older than I, who was gasping and groaning as if in death’s grasp.”
His older brother, Taro Mitsushima, who died in 2015 at the age of 88, was then working as a substitute teacher at the National School in Hiwa-cho but had visited Hiroshima on August 6 to obtain a supply of calligraphy paper for use by children at the school. He had been exposed to the bombing’s thermal rays in the vicinity of the Senda-machi area (in Hiroshima’s present-day Naka Ward), about 1.5 kilometers from the hypocenter, suffering severe burns to his face that made it nearly impossible for him to open his mouth.
The damage to some members of the public from the bombing extended as far as the northern reaches of Hiroshima Prefecture, far from Hiroshima City.
(Originally published on August 17, 2024)
