Documenting Hiroshima of 1945: October–November, relentless efforts made to restore electric power supply for city’s recovery
Nov. 2, 2024
by Maho Yamamoto, Staff Writer
Between October and November 1945, the power company Chugoku Haiden (present-day Chugoku Electric Power Co.), which had requested that Yoshita Kishimoto, owner of a photography studio in Hiroshima, conduct surveys of the damages to its power-distribution facilities, proceeded with the work of restoring its transmission of electric power.
The company’s head office, a five-story ferroconcrete building with a single-story basement in the area of Komachi (in Hiroshima’s present-day Naka Ward), around 700 meters from the hypocenter, was incinerated in its interior areas, with only its exterior walls remaining. A total of 274 employees at the company died at its facilities, including its head office and the Hiroshima branch office, located in the area of Togiya-cho (in the city’s present-day Naka Ward). More than 80 percent of the wooden utility poles situated within one kilometer of the hypocenter had been burned to the ground.
According to the 1995 Ano-hi, Ano-toki (in English, ‘That day, that time’), a Chugoku Electric Power Company publication that compiled records of the atomic bombing and reconstruction work, August 6 was “a night of total darkness.” On August 7, the following day, the company had tentatively repaired the company’s Danbara substation and started transmitting electric power to the Ujina area. On August 20, around 30 percent of the houses that remained after the bombing starting receiving electricity.
Yasuo Sanada, head of the Hiroshima branch office who later became the company’s vice president and died in 2004 at the age of 100, promoted the idea that “the city’s recovery will be begin first and foremost with electricity,” leading restoration efforts “without rest.” However, obtaining the necessary materials, such as electrical wires, was not an easy task. With that, a provisional distribution line was established using scorched electrical power lines. Members of the public also engaged in their own do-it-yourself work by picking up and connecting electrical power lines to turn on lights.
On a daily basis for a time, Mr. Sanada would visit the Hiroshima Prefectural government offices, tentatively located in the factory of Toyo Kogyo (present-day Mazda Motor Corporation), in Fuchu-cho, Hiroshima Prefecture, to ensure his company would be able to obtain electrical materials disposed of by the military. He said he did not take a single day off for around six months.
“It was a situation in which people who came to work yesterday would not show up today. Around that time, uninjured people were dying one after the other from A-bomb disease,” Mr. Sanada was quoted as saying in Hiroshima Keizai-jin-no Showa Shi (‘History of Showa Era for Hiroshima business people’), published in 1988. In the bombing, he had lost his daughter, who was a second-year student at Hiroshima Municipal Girls’ High School (Municipal Girls’ School; present-day Funairi High School), as well as his son, who passed away on November 8.
By the end of November, Chugoku Haiden finished restoring its electric power supply to all remaining houses in the city.
(Originally published on November 2, 2024)
Between October and November 1945, the power company Chugoku Haiden (present-day Chugoku Electric Power Co.), which had requested that Yoshita Kishimoto, owner of a photography studio in Hiroshima, conduct surveys of the damages to its power-distribution facilities, proceeded with the work of restoring its transmission of electric power.
The company’s head office, a five-story ferroconcrete building with a single-story basement in the area of Komachi (in Hiroshima’s present-day Naka Ward), around 700 meters from the hypocenter, was incinerated in its interior areas, with only its exterior walls remaining. A total of 274 employees at the company died at its facilities, including its head office and the Hiroshima branch office, located in the area of Togiya-cho (in the city’s present-day Naka Ward). More than 80 percent of the wooden utility poles situated within one kilometer of the hypocenter had been burned to the ground.
According to the 1995 Ano-hi, Ano-toki (in English, ‘That day, that time’), a Chugoku Electric Power Company publication that compiled records of the atomic bombing and reconstruction work, August 6 was “a night of total darkness.” On August 7, the following day, the company had tentatively repaired the company’s Danbara substation and started transmitting electric power to the Ujina area. On August 20, around 30 percent of the houses that remained after the bombing starting receiving electricity.
Yasuo Sanada, head of the Hiroshima branch office who later became the company’s vice president and died in 2004 at the age of 100, promoted the idea that “the city’s recovery will be begin first and foremost with electricity,” leading restoration efforts “without rest.” However, obtaining the necessary materials, such as electrical wires, was not an easy task. With that, a provisional distribution line was established using scorched electrical power lines. Members of the public also engaged in their own do-it-yourself work by picking up and connecting electrical power lines to turn on lights.
On a daily basis for a time, Mr. Sanada would visit the Hiroshima Prefectural government offices, tentatively located in the factory of Toyo Kogyo (present-day Mazda Motor Corporation), in Fuchu-cho, Hiroshima Prefecture, to ensure his company would be able to obtain electrical materials disposed of by the military. He said he did not take a single day off for around six months.
“It was a situation in which people who came to work yesterday would not show up today. Around that time, uninjured people were dying one after the other from A-bomb disease,” Mr. Sanada was quoted as saying in Hiroshima Keizai-jin-no Showa Shi (‘History of Showa Era for Hiroshima business people’), published in 1988. In the bombing, he had lost his daughter, who was a second-year student at Hiroshima Municipal Girls’ High School (Municipal Girls’ School; present-day Funairi High School), as well as his son, who passed away on November 8.
By the end of November, Chugoku Haiden finished restoring its electric power supply to all remaining houses in the city.
(Originally published on November 2, 2024)
