Documenting Hiroshima of 1945: In October, Danbara, district spared from destruction by fires after A-bombing
Oct. 31, 2024
by Minami Yamashita, Staff Writer
In October 1945, rows of damaged houses spread out in the Danbara district (in Hiroshima City’s present-day Minami Ward). Most of the houses in the area had been at least half-destroyed in the atomic bombing, but the area was spared from being burned to the ground in fires after the bombing thanks to shielding provided by the roughly 70-meter-high Hijiyama Hill, which stood on the hypocenter side of Danbara.
With an influx of population from agricultural villages into the city’s central area, the Danbara district grew rapidly around the end of Japan’s Taisho era (1912–1926). Before the atomic bombing, the area had been lined by more than 2,000 private homes and shops, with a population of around 8,000 residents.
On August 6, Mikio Saiki, 92, a second-year student at the time at Hiroshima First Middle School (present-day Kokutaiji High School) who now lives in the city’s Naka Ward, experienced the atomic bombing at his family’s home in the area of Danbaranaka-machi, where he was living with his family of six. He was uninjured in the bombing, with the home’s location 2.2 kilometers from the hypocenter, but the home’s main pillars were tilted and most of its walls had collapsed.
Recalling those times, Mr. Saiki said, “Private homes in the Danbara area were destroyed as far as I could see. Surprised, I also found that the area beyond Hijiyama Hill was engulfed in spreading flames.” After a time, severely wounded people started to flee from the central area of the city. “Because they couldn’t see with their faces swollen from burns, everyone walked in a line, following the person ahead of them,” said Mr. Saiki. He filled containers with water and handed them out to people.
In place of his father, who had suffered burns after experiencing the atomic bombing in the area of Matoba-cho (in Hiroshima’s present-day Minami Ward), Mr. Saiki set about repairing their home soon after the bombing and nearly every day would go to Matoba-cho to collect rooftiles. Neighbors, repairing their own houses, continued living in the area. Around mid-August, shops selling food and other goods started to reopen.
In addition to the residents from before, people who had lost their homes outside the area moved into the Danbara district, making it one of the focal points of the city’s recovery efforts. However, the area was made up of narrow roads with a mixed concentration of houses built in the pre-war period and shacks erected after the war. While urbanization proceeded in other areas of the city, the Danbara district was left behind in that effort until 1973, when the Hiroshima City government initiated a redevelopment project for the area.
(Originally published on October 31, 2024)
In October 1945, rows of damaged houses spread out in the Danbara district (in Hiroshima City’s present-day Minami Ward). Most of the houses in the area had been at least half-destroyed in the atomic bombing, but the area was spared from being burned to the ground in fires after the bombing thanks to shielding provided by the roughly 70-meter-high Hijiyama Hill, which stood on the hypocenter side of Danbara.
With an influx of population from agricultural villages into the city’s central area, the Danbara district grew rapidly around the end of Japan’s Taisho era (1912–1926). Before the atomic bombing, the area had been lined by more than 2,000 private homes and shops, with a population of around 8,000 residents.
On August 6, Mikio Saiki, 92, a second-year student at the time at Hiroshima First Middle School (present-day Kokutaiji High School) who now lives in the city’s Naka Ward, experienced the atomic bombing at his family’s home in the area of Danbaranaka-machi, where he was living with his family of six. He was uninjured in the bombing, with the home’s location 2.2 kilometers from the hypocenter, but the home’s main pillars were tilted and most of its walls had collapsed.
Recalling those times, Mr. Saiki said, “Private homes in the Danbara area were destroyed as far as I could see. Surprised, I also found that the area beyond Hijiyama Hill was engulfed in spreading flames.” After a time, severely wounded people started to flee from the central area of the city. “Because they couldn’t see with their faces swollen from burns, everyone walked in a line, following the person ahead of them,” said Mr. Saiki. He filled containers with water and handed them out to people.
In place of his father, who had suffered burns after experiencing the atomic bombing in the area of Matoba-cho (in Hiroshima’s present-day Minami Ward), Mr. Saiki set about repairing their home soon after the bombing and nearly every day would go to Matoba-cho to collect rooftiles. Neighbors, repairing their own houses, continued living in the area. Around mid-August, shops selling food and other goods started to reopen.
In addition to the residents from before, people who had lost their homes outside the area moved into the Danbara district, making it one of the focal points of the city’s recovery efforts. However, the area was made up of narrow roads with a mixed concentration of houses built in the pre-war period and shacks erected after the war. While urbanization proceeded in other areas of the city, the Danbara district was left behind in that effort until 1973, when the Hiroshima City government initiated a redevelopment project for the area.
(Originally published on October 31, 2024)