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Documenting Hiroshima of 1945: Early October, man grieves deaths of family in devastated Tenjin-machi

by Kyosuke Mizukawa, Senior Staff Writer

In early October 1945, Tenjin-machi Kitagumi, the southeastern part of present-day Peace Memorial Park in Hiroshima’s Naka Ward, remained in ruins after being destroyed and reduced to ashes in the atomic bombing. The area was located along the Motoyasu River, from around 200 to 400 meters southwest of the hypocenter. In the days before the bombing, the area had been packed with wooden shop buildings and houses along Tenjin-machi-suji, the main street running north to south through the district.

On September 25, Hiroshi Yoneda, 22 at the time, wrote in a personal account about his wave of feelings for his family. “I will never forget for the rest of my life the fact that I lost my mother and my two dear brothers all at one time.” His family’s Yoneda Kyoto-style dyed goods shop had been located on Tenjin-machi-suji street.

At the time, Mr. Yoneda was a student at Tokyo Imperial University (present-day University of Tokyo). On July 20, to obtain permission for engagement to his future wife, who he had met at the boarding house in which he was staying, he had returned to his home in Hiroshima, where his mother and brothers were living. On August 6, one week after he returned back to the boarding house in Tokyo, the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima.

His mother, Michiyo, 60 at the time, was “burned alive in the kitchen.” The bodies of his two older brothers, Yoshikiyo, 38 at the time, and Hidezo, 35, were “unrecovered.” That was the language with which he was informed of the deaths of his family members in a letter sent by his older sister-in-law on August 26. The journal entry he wrote on that date read, “I cried until no tears were left.”

At the end of August, he returned to his hometown. His relatives had dug through the ruins of his burned-down home, finding Yoshikiyo’s tobacco pipe and the remains of what appeared to be his two brothers’ bodies. Before the atomic bombing, his deceased mother had buried tableware in a hole underground in preparation for possible air raids. In a letter addressed to the proprietor of his boarding house, he wrote, “The tableware in the hole included a coffee set that my mother had purchased for me and my future bride in happy anticipation of our marriage.”

Later, Mr. Yoneda made copies of his own journal and letters, compiling a manuscript that expressed his emotions and feelings about the atomic bombing. After he died in 2018 at the age of 95, the manuscript was donated to the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum, where it is now archived.

In 2018, the Hiroshima City government excavated a part of Tenjin-machi-suji near the Yoneda Kyoto-style dyed goods shop, finding the remains of a burned building and street asphalt at a spot about 60 centimeters underground. Since 2022, those materials have been available for viewing by the public at a facility for the exhibit of A-bombed structural remains erected at the excavation site.

(Originally published on October 2, 2024)

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