Documenting Hiroshima of 1945: In November, pitiful sight to behold, with even educational, cultural area affected
Nov. 21, 2024
by Maho Yamamoto, Staff Writer
In November 1945, former school buildings were in a pitiful state on the campus of the Hiroshima University of Literature and Science (present-day Hiroshima University) in Higashisenda-machi in the city’s Naka Ward, around 1.5 kilometers southeast of the hypocenter. The school was located in an educational and cultural area of Hiroshima City, which was known as the academic capital of western Japan before the war. However, the remaining scars from the atomic bombing were deep.
On the same grounds, the wooden school buildings of Hiroshima Higher Normal School (also present-day Hiroshima University) and the junior high school affiliated with Hiroshima Higher Normal School (present-day Hiroshima University Junior and Senior High School) had collapsed and burned to the ground. The Research Institute for Theoretical Physics of the Hiroshima University of Literature and Science and other buildings had also been completely destroyed in the bombing.
Along with the Hiroshima University of Literature and Science’s main reinforced-concrete building, which survived the bombing and has been preserved as an A-bombed building, the reinforced-concrete building of the National School affiliated with Hiroshima Higher Normal School (present-day Hiroshima University Elementary School) had barely escaped the fires that arose after the bombing. According to the Record of the Hiroshima A-Bomb War Disaster, published in 1971, 270 of the 450 school children had been evacuated with classmates to a temple in the town of Saijo-cho (in present-day Shobara City) in northern Hiroshima Prefecture, while around 160 had been evacuated to the homes of relatives and friends.
Hiroshi Shimizu, 90, a resident of Hiroshima’s Naka Ward and a fifth-year student at the time who was part of the mass evacuation, returned to Hiroshima City with his mother at the end of August. Worried, he immediately headed to his school. Although the reinforced-concrete school building had retained its external appearance, the inside of the building, including the classrooms where he had sat studying at desks with other students, was completely burned out. He stood there alone. “It felt as if a place full of memories had been destroyed,” he said. Eleven students had died in the bombing.
The mass evacuation of the school ended at the end of September. However, like Hiroshima Higher Normal School and its affiliated junior high school, the National School gave up on its immediate return to Hiroshima’s Higashisenda-machi. The school resumed classes in November in rooms it leased at a seaside education center of the Hiroshima University of Literature and Science in the village of Onori (in present-day Takehara City). According to the Hachijunen-shi (in English, ‘80th anniversary journal’) of the affiliated elementary school, published in 1985, 157 students lived together under the same roof. Mr. Shimizu, who had been part of the mass evacuation to the mountains, also made a sudden move to the coast.
In the meantime, their parents and guardians raised money to repair the windows and other parts of the original school building. Classes in the village of Onori ended in March 1946, and returned to Higashisenda-machi. After the bombing, however, some of the students were reported to have had difficulty in attending school due to economic and other hardship.
(Originally published on November 21, 2024)
In November 1945, former school buildings were in a pitiful state on the campus of the Hiroshima University of Literature and Science (present-day Hiroshima University) in Higashisenda-machi in the city’s Naka Ward, around 1.5 kilometers southeast of the hypocenter. The school was located in an educational and cultural area of Hiroshima City, which was known as the academic capital of western Japan before the war. However, the remaining scars from the atomic bombing were deep.
On the same grounds, the wooden school buildings of Hiroshima Higher Normal School (also present-day Hiroshima University) and the junior high school affiliated with Hiroshima Higher Normal School (present-day Hiroshima University Junior and Senior High School) had collapsed and burned to the ground. The Research Institute for Theoretical Physics of the Hiroshima University of Literature and Science and other buildings had also been completely destroyed in the bombing.
Along with the Hiroshima University of Literature and Science’s main reinforced-concrete building, which survived the bombing and has been preserved as an A-bombed building, the reinforced-concrete building of the National School affiliated with Hiroshima Higher Normal School (present-day Hiroshima University Elementary School) had barely escaped the fires that arose after the bombing. According to the Record of the Hiroshima A-Bomb War Disaster, published in 1971, 270 of the 450 school children had been evacuated with classmates to a temple in the town of Saijo-cho (in present-day Shobara City) in northern Hiroshima Prefecture, while around 160 had been evacuated to the homes of relatives and friends.
Hiroshi Shimizu, 90, a resident of Hiroshima’s Naka Ward and a fifth-year student at the time who was part of the mass evacuation, returned to Hiroshima City with his mother at the end of August. Worried, he immediately headed to his school. Although the reinforced-concrete school building had retained its external appearance, the inside of the building, including the classrooms where he had sat studying at desks with other students, was completely burned out. He stood there alone. “It felt as if a place full of memories had been destroyed,” he said. Eleven students had died in the bombing.
The mass evacuation of the school ended at the end of September. However, like Hiroshima Higher Normal School and its affiliated junior high school, the National School gave up on its immediate return to Hiroshima’s Higashisenda-machi. The school resumed classes in November in rooms it leased at a seaside education center of the Hiroshima University of Literature and Science in the village of Onori (in present-day Takehara City). According to the Hachijunen-shi (in English, ‘80th anniversary journal’) of the affiliated elementary school, published in 1985, 157 students lived together under the same roof. Mr. Shimizu, who had been part of the mass evacuation to the mountains, also made a sudden move to the coast.
In the meantime, their parents and guardians raised money to repair the windows and other parts of the original school building. Classes in the village of Onori ended in March 1946, and returned to Higashisenda-machi. After the bombing, however, some of the students were reported to have had difficulty in attending school due to economic and other hardship.
(Originally published on November 21, 2024)
