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Documenting Hiroshima of 1945: Early October, heartrending messages written on wall of school building

by Kyosuke Mizukawa, Senior Staff Writer

In early October 1945, messages inquiring about the whereabouts of missing family members or communicating the location of survivors were written on a wall of the building of Motomachi National School (present-day Fukuromachi Elementary School, in Hiroshima’s Naka Ward). The messages included those indicating, “Please contact us” and “Am receiving treatment at relief station.” Shunkichi Kikuchi, the person in charge of photography for the production of a documentary film on damages caused by the atomic bombings, photographed the messages on the school building’s wall.

One of the messages was a heartrending notice from Shigeru Miyoshi, who died in 1980 at the age of 76, to her homeroom teacher about his second daughter, Tokiko, a first-year student in the school’s advanced program who was 13 at the time. The message read, “Tokiko Miyoshi passed away at the Okukaita National School — Shigeru Miyoshi, Tokiko’s father.”

Mr. Miyoshi had lived together with his family of seven, including his wife and five children, in Zaimoku-cho, an area near the hypocenter that now makes up part of Peace Memorial Park. On August 6 he survived because he had left the house for work, but the remains of his pregnant wife were found amid the family home’s incinerated ruins.

The circumstances surrounding Mr. Miyoshi’s children were unclear at the time. On August 9, he was informed by someone about Tokiko’s whereabouts. She had experienced the atomic bombing when she was mobilized to dismantle buildings in the city’s central area to create fire lanes and had been taken to Okukaita National School (present-day Kaita-higashi Elementary School, in the area of Kaita-cho).

He later wrote in a personal account, “I was very glad to find that she was alive … Tokiko was always slim, and her body was so flat, her back and stomach appeared to be touching, but she was alert.” His account was part of a collection titled Hibakutaiken, Watashi no Tsutaetai Koto (in English, ‘A-bombing experiences: My message’), which was published in 1977. Glass shards were stuck into the back of her head, and her sailor school uniform was stiff from her own blood.

Mr. Miyoshi cared for her throughout the night. Because Tokiko had expressed her desire to eat a peach, he asked a relative to bring one for her. “Father, I want to drink some water,” Tokiko implored, and her father had her drink through a kettle. Gradually, however, Tokiko’s fingers and hands turned purple, and she breathed her last on August 14.

Mr. Miyoshi cremated his daughter’s body at a nearby mountain. He later wrote, “I cried so hard there were no tears left. I asked why I had not died with her.” He was not able to find the remains of his oldest son, his third daughter, or fourth daughter, who were all between the ages of three and nine years, ultimately losing five members of his family, including his wife and those children. His oldest daughter managed to survive.

(Originally published on October 8, 2024)

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