Documenting Hiroshima of 1945: Around November, charred camphor trees remain after A-bombing
Nov. 3, 2024
by Minami Yamashita, Staff Writer
Around November 1945, camphor trees, beloved by citizens and designated as a natural treasure by the national government, remained standing on the grounds of Kokutaiji Temple in the area of Komachi (in Hiroshima’s present-day Naka Ward), after they were charred by the massive fires that arose after the atomic bombing. Next to the standing trees was a fallen camphor tree that had been pulled up by its roots.
According to the Nihon Annai-ki, Chugoku/Shikoku-Hen (in English, ‘Guidebook of Japan, the Chugoku and Shikoku regions’), revised in 1942, the trees were more than 300 years old and stood around 30 meters in height. A sidewalk had been laid down over the trees’ raised roots, and streetcar tracks had been curved in a way as if to accommodate the trees. The dense tree branches spread out above the heads of passers-by.
Satoru Saeki, 89, a resident of Hiroshima’s Asaminami Ward and a temple parishioner who lived in Komachi before the atomic bombing, would often play on the grounds of the temple with friends on his way home from Fukuromachi National School (present-day Fukuromachi Elementary School), which he attended as a student. “Memorable to me were the lanterns lit in the temple at night, with many cicadas alighting on the big camphor trees. I was once scolded by a novice monk for throwing a cicada to turtles in the pond,” said Mr. Saeki.
On August 6, the temple, located around 500 meters from the hypocenter, was completely destroyed and burned to the ground in the atomic bombing, which killed the head priest and novice monks, who had been on the temple grounds. Story has it that the camphor trees continued to smolder for some time after the bombing.
Mr. Saeki did not experience the atomic bombing directly, because he had been evacuated in groups of school children to the northern part of Hiroshima Prefecture, but he lost his father in the bombing. After moving from one place to another, including Hiroshima Teishin Hospital (in Hiroshima’s present-day Naka Ward), where his grandmother worked, and his mother’s family home in Shimane Prefecture, he returned to Hiroshima and lived in a shack that his uncle, who had been discharged from the military, built on the remains of his family home in the Komachi area. Mr. Saeki said of the camphor trees, “Their trunks had big hollowed out areas.”
After they had died, the trees were ultimately removed from the site in 1955. The temple was rebuilt by the head priest at Kaizoji Temple (located in Hiroshima’s present-day Nishi Ward), of the same Soto sect as Kokutaiji Temple, and moved to its present location in the area of Koiue in the city’s Nishi Ward in 1978. The camphor tree roots had been milled and stored by a furniture shop in the city but, in the 1990s, Shuntei Adachi, a calligrapher and engraving artist, created an art piece of engraved calligraphy using the materials. Parts of the camphor trees, such as cross-sectioned slices and other sections, are still held at Kokutaiji Temple.
(Originally published on November 3, 2024)
Around November 1945, camphor trees, beloved by citizens and designated as a natural treasure by the national government, remained standing on the grounds of Kokutaiji Temple in the area of Komachi (in Hiroshima’s present-day Naka Ward), after they were charred by the massive fires that arose after the atomic bombing. Next to the standing trees was a fallen camphor tree that had been pulled up by its roots.
According to the Nihon Annai-ki, Chugoku/Shikoku-Hen (in English, ‘Guidebook of Japan, the Chugoku and Shikoku regions’), revised in 1942, the trees were more than 300 years old and stood around 30 meters in height. A sidewalk had been laid down over the trees’ raised roots, and streetcar tracks had been curved in a way as if to accommodate the trees. The dense tree branches spread out above the heads of passers-by.
Satoru Saeki, 89, a resident of Hiroshima’s Asaminami Ward and a temple parishioner who lived in Komachi before the atomic bombing, would often play on the grounds of the temple with friends on his way home from Fukuromachi National School (present-day Fukuromachi Elementary School), which he attended as a student. “Memorable to me were the lanterns lit in the temple at night, with many cicadas alighting on the big camphor trees. I was once scolded by a novice monk for throwing a cicada to turtles in the pond,” said Mr. Saeki.
On August 6, the temple, located around 500 meters from the hypocenter, was completely destroyed and burned to the ground in the atomic bombing, which killed the head priest and novice monks, who had been on the temple grounds. Story has it that the camphor trees continued to smolder for some time after the bombing.
Mr. Saeki did not experience the atomic bombing directly, because he had been evacuated in groups of school children to the northern part of Hiroshima Prefecture, but he lost his father in the bombing. After moving from one place to another, including Hiroshima Teishin Hospital (in Hiroshima’s present-day Naka Ward), where his grandmother worked, and his mother’s family home in Shimane Prefecture, he returned to Hiroshima and lived in a shack that his uncle, who had been discharged from the military, built on the remains of his family home in the Komachi area. Mr. Saeki said of the camphor trees, “Their trunks had big hollowed out areas.”
After they had died, the trees were ultimately removed from the site in 1955. The temple was rebuilt by the head priest at Kaizoji Temple (located in Hiroshima’s present-day Nishi Ward), of the same Soto sect as Kokutaiji Temple, and moved to its present location in the area of Koiue in the city’s Nishi Ward in 1978. The camphor tree roots had been milled and stored by a furniture shop in the city but, in the 1990s, Shuntei Adachi, a calligrapher and engraving artist, created an art piece of engraved calligraphy using the materials. Parts of the camphor trees, such as cross-sectioned slices and other sections, are still held at Kokutaiji Temple.
(Originally published on November 3, 2024)
