Documenting Hiroshima of 1945: In December, Fukuya Department Store prepares to sell Japanese sake for stand-up drinking
Dec. 27, 2024
by Maho Yamamoto, Staff Writer
In December 1945, the Fukuya Department Store, located in the area of Hatchobori (in Hiroshima City’s present-day Naka Ward), was making preparations to begin sales of Japanese sake for stand-up drinking in the store starting on New Year’s Day. The department store’s reinforced concrete building, located around 710 meters from the hypocenter, survived the fires after the atomic bombing and stood amid the ruins. For a time after the bombing, the building had been used to accommodate the wounded, but management made the decision to restore the building.
It was decided to warm up commercial-grade sake supplied by the city in milk bottles and sell it for two yen per bottle for customers to drink standing up in the store. Bricks were gathered to build a stove in a corner on the first floor, and water was boiled using wood materials that remained after the fires.
A book titled Fukuya 50-nen Shi (in English, ‘50-year history of Fukuya Department Store’), published in 1980, describes the customers. “Exhausted citizens in line did not even say ‘Happy New Year,’ but the two-yen sake sold in milk bottles deeply penetrated into the hearts of the people,” as depicted in the publication. The sake prepared for that day was sold out in no time. The book indicates that the 10 or so employees in charge of sake sales were also encouraged by the event to work for the city’s reconstruction.
Fukuya opened in 1929 as the first department store in Hiroshima. In 1938, a new building with eight stories aboveground and two floors underground was completed. The interior of the store had been burned out by the fires after the bombing, and 31 employees had been killed on their way to work or while in the store. For about one month after the bombing, the store was used as a city “provisional infectious-disease hospital,” accommodating A-bomb survivors suffering from such symptoms as diarrhea or bloody stools.
Miyako Makino, 90, a resident of Hatsukaichi City in Hiroshima Prefecture, lived on the Kinzagai shopping street near the department store with her family before the atomic bombing. She has fond memories of the department store from before the war, explaining, “I was so happy about the fact that they would put an apron on me when we used to visit the food section in the basement.” She lost her parents in the atomic bombing and lived in a shack that had been built near her family home with her grandmother and others for around one year. She said, “Although the city area had been burned to the ground, the Fukuya building remained standing alone.”
The department store also suffered damages when the basement of the building was flooded in the Makurazaki Typhoon in September. According to the 50-year anniversary publication, however, that event drove company executives to have a stronger sense of mission in the belief that, “Fukuya will become a foothold for Hiroshima’s recovery.” In October, a temporary office for the department store’s recovery from war damage was opened in the home of Gentaro Kitagawa, a managing director of the store, in the area of Kogo-machi (in Hiroshima’s present-day Nishi Ward). There, work began on collecting accounts receivable, negotiating with business partners to resume business, and cleaning up the inside of the building. After its sales of sake for stand-up drinking, the store finally reopened in February 1946.
(Originally published on December 27, 2024)
In December 1945, the Fukuya Department Store, located in the area of Hatchobori (in Hiroshima City’s present-day Naka Ward), was making preparations to begin sales of Japanese sake for stand-up drinking in the store starting on New Year’s Day. The department store’s reinforced concrete building, located around 710 meters from the hypocenter, survived the fires after the atomic bombing and stood amid the ruins. For a time after the bombing, the building had been used to accommodate the wounded, but management made the decision to restore the building.
It was decided to warm up commercial-grade sake supplied by the city in milk bottles and sell it for two yen per bottle for customers to drink standing up in the store. Bricks were gathered to build a stove in a corner on the first floor, and water was boiled using wood materials that remained after the fires.
A book titled Fukuya 50-nen Shi (in English, ‘50-year history of Fukuya Department Store’), published in 1980, describes the customers. “Exhausted citizens in line did not even say ‘Happy New Year,’ but the two-yen sake sold in milk bottles deeply penetrated into the hearts of the people,” as depicted in the publication. The sake prepared for that day was sold out in no time. The book indicates that the 10 or so employees in charge of sake sales were also encouraged by the event to work for the city’s reconstruction.
Fukuya opened in 1929 as the first department store in Hiroshima. In 1938, a new building with eight stories aboveground and two floors underground was completed. The interior of the store had been burned out by the fires after the bombing, and 31 employees had been killed on their way to work or while in the store. For about one month after the bombing, the store was used as a city “provisional infectious-disease hospital,” accommodating A-bomb survivors suffering from such symptoms as diarrhea or bloody stools.
Miyako Makino, 90, a resident of Hatsukaichi City in Hiroshima Prefecture, lived on the Kinzagai shopping street near the department store with her family before the atomic bombing. She has fond memories of the department store from before the war, explaining, “I was so happy about the fact that they would put an apron on me when we used to visit the food section in the basement.” She lost her parents in the atomic bombing and lived in a shack that had been built near her family home with her grandmother and others for around one year. She said, “Although the city area had been burned to the ground, the Fukuya building remained standing alone.”
The department store also suffered damages when the basement of the building was flooded in the Makurazaki Typhoon in September. According to the 50-year anniversary publication, however, that event drove company executives to have a stronger sense of mission in the belief that, “Fukuya will become a foothold for Hiroshima’s recovery.” In October, a temporary office for the department store’s recovery from war damage was opened in the home of Gentaro Kitagawa, a managing director of the store, in the area of Kogo-machi (in Hiroshima’s present-day Nishi Ward). There, work began on collecting accounts receivable, negotiating with business partners to resume business, and cleaning up the inside of the building. After its sales of sake for stand-up drinking, the store finally reopened in February 1946.
(Originally published on December 27, 2024)
