Documenting Hiroshima of 1945, Mid-December, certificate of death issued without any remains
Dec. 12, 2024
by Minami Yamashita, Staff Writer
In mid-December 1945, a death certificate was issued for Masako Ninomiya, 13 at the time, a first-year student at Yamanaka Girls’ High School affiliated with Hiroshima Women’s Higher School of Education (present-day Hiroshima University Junior and Senior High School in Fukuyama). For slightly more than four months after the atomic bombing, Ms. Ninomiya’s parents continued searching for her daughter’s whereabouts, ending up holding a funeral without her remains ever being found.
Ms. Ninomiya was away from her family home, which was located in the present-day town of Kitahiroshima-cho in Hiroshima Prefecture, commuting to her school in the area of Senda-machi (in Hiroshima’s present-day Naka Ward) from the home of her father’s friend in the Eba district (also in Naka Ward). On August 6, first- and second-year students at her school had been mobilized to demolish buildings for the creation of fire lanes in the area of Zakoba-cho, located around 1.2 kilometers from the hypocenter, and almost all of them died in the bombing.
Ms. Ninomiya, who had just turned 13 the previous day, August 5, also was engaged in the work. For many days, her father would head to the central part of the city to look around for her but was unable to find anything, even belongings she had carried on her person. Her mother used to go to the nearest bus stop from home, continuing to wait for her daughter’s return.
Ms. Ninomiya’s younger brother, Takaaki, 10 at the time, wrote a personal account in 2004, looking back at that time. “I feel pity and sadness even now when I recall my petite mother coming back home from the bus stop with her head bowed,” he wrote. “One day, she said, ‘I hope she returns home even if she has injuries all over her body.’”
Left behind as keepsakes of Ms. Ninomiya were a blouse, a school bag, and a diary, which remained at the house where she had been staying. In her diary entry dated May 27 written during a return home, Masako described an incident in which her mother had scolded her so harshly that she had cried and said she did not want to return to Hiroshima. With regret, her mother said, “It’s as if I killed Masako.” After the war, it is said she never again raised her voice at her children, or even laughed aloud.
Masako’s death certificate was issued by the West Police Station on December 17, 1945. Takaaki wrote in his account, “My parents likely asked the government to issue the certificate, thinking they wanted to finish up the funeral before the arrival of the new year even without her remains.” Considering his parents’ feelings in that way, in 2004, Takaaki donated his sister’s keepsakes to the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum.
(Originally published on December 12, 2024)
In mid-December 1945, a death certificate was issued for Masako Ninomiya, 13 at the time, a first-year student at Yamanaka Girls’ High School affiliated with Hiroshima Women’s Higher School of Education (present-day Hiroshima University Junior and Senior High School in Fukuyama). For slightly more than four months after the atomic bombing, Ms. Ninomiya’s parents continued searching for her daughter’s whereabouts, ending up holding a funeral without her remains ever being found.
Ms. Ninomiya was away from her family home, which was located in the present-day town of Kitahiroshima-cho in Hiroshima Prefecture, commuting to her school in the area of Senda-machi (in Hiroshima’s present-day Naka Ward) from the home of her father’s friend in the Eba district (also in Naka Ward). On August 6, first- and second-year students at her school had been mobilized to demolish buildings for the creation of fire lanes in the area of Zakoba-cho, located around 1.2 kilometers from the hypocenter, and almost all of them died in the bombing.
Ms. Ninomiya, who had just turned 13 the previous day, August 5, also was engaged in the work. For many days, her father would head to the central part of the city to look around for her but was unable to find anything, even belongings she had carried on her person. Her mother used to go to the nearest bus stop from home, continuing to wait for her daughter’s return.
Ms. Ninomiya’s younger brother, Takaaki, 10 at the time, wrote a personal account in 2004, looking back at that time. “I feel pity and sadness even now when I recall my petite mother coming back home from the bus stop with her head bowed,” he wrote. “One day, she said, ‘I hope she returns home even if she has injuries all over her body.’”
Left behind as keepsakes of Ms. Ninomiya were a blouse, a school bag, and a diary, which remained at the house where she had been staying. In her diary entry dated May 27 written during a return home, Masako described an incident in which her mother had scolded her so harshly that she had cried and said she did not want to return to Hiroshima. With regret, her mother said, “It’s as if I killed Masako.” After the war, it is said she never again raised her voice at her children, or even laughed aloud.
Masako’s death certificate was issued by the West Police Station on December 17, 1945. Takaaki wrote in his account, “My parents likely asked the government to issue the certificate, thinking they wanted to finish up the funeral before the arrival of the new year even without her remains.” Considering his parents’ feelings in that way, in 2004, Takaaki donated his sister’s keepsakes to the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum.
(Originally published on December 12, 2024)
