Documenting Hiroshima of 1945: December 29, New Year’s preparations underway, including making of mochi rice cakes
Dec. 29, 2024
by Minami Yamashita, Staff Writer
On December 29, 1945, the Chugoku Shimbun carried “a year-end snapshot” depicting how a certain family made mochi rice cakes. Using the meager amount of glutinous mochi rice that had been distributed to the family, the grandmother of the family kneaded the steamed rice and the mother rolled it out. A son who had returned home from the military, with a hachimaki band tied around his head, lifted a mallet overhead to pound the mochi. The caption of the photograph read, “The sound of mochi making, echoing amid the ruins, is the sound of the sturdy footsteps of the new democratic Japan.”
On the same day, the newspaper ran another article reporting that the Hiroshima City government would distribute kagami-mochi (flat, circular rice cakes) to temples and shrines that requested it. A year-end snapshot carried in the Chugoku Shimbun on a different day introduced children showing each other their hago-ita ceremonial paddles and singing New Year’s songs, as well as scenes of citizens buying New Year’s goods at a black market. The practice of kaki-uchi (cracking open oysters), a scene typical of Hiroshima in December, continued modestly despite the damage to oyster cultivation from the Makurazaki typhoon that had struck the city in September.
The Hiroshima War Orphans Foster Home, located in the area of Itsukaichi-cho (in Hiroshima City’s present-day Saeki Ward), Hiroshima Prefecture, which accommodated children who had lost their parents in the atomic bombing, was also engaged in preparations for the New Year. The home’s care log entry dated December 29, the day for mochi making, indicated that, “The pleasures of greeting the New Year. The children enjoyed even more happiness than usual at today’s mochi-making event.” On the morning of December 30, the children ate rice porridge with mochi, and the home’s teachers and staff went shopping for goods to celebrate the New Year. On December 31, there was a comprehensive housecleaning. After dinner, there was a raffle.
The birth home of Miyako Yano, 93, a resident of Hiroshima’s Nishi Ward, who was at the time a second-year student at Hiroshima First Municipal Girls’ School (Municipal Girls’ School; present-day Funairi High School), was Kanda Shrine, located in the area of Ujina-machi (in the city’s Naka Ward). The shrine accepted wounded victims in the aftermath of the bombing. Taking the opportunity of an autumn festival held in October, the shrine repaired its roof, which had collapsed due to the blast from the bombing. On New Year’s day, her family soaked mochi rice in the broth from sasage beans, instead of the traditional adzuki beans, from which were made white and pink mochi rice cakes. The cakes were then offered to the shrine. However, she recalled that, “I didn’t feel like celebrating the New Year.”
On August 6, all of her school’s 541 first-and second-year students who had been mobilized to help with building-demolition work on the south side of present-day Peace Memorial Park (in Hiroshima’s Naka Ward) died in the bombing. Ms. Yano escaped death because she had been absent that day with a stomach-ache, leaving her to experience the atomic bombing at home. When she told that story, some of the bereaved family members of her classmates burst into tears. Adults hurled insults at her. “You’re unpatriotic” or “a survivor,” they said.
“It was hard for me to live on,” said Ms. Yano. Her life changed drastically after the end of the war, although she had grown up in a world dominated by war, beginning each day by saluting with her family in the direction of the Imperial Palace. She said, “Because of the atomic bombing, both those who died and those who survived experienced hell.”
(Originally published on December 29, 2024)
On December 29, 1945, the Chugoku Shimbun carried “a year-end snapshot” depicting how a certain family made mochi rice cakes. Using the meager amount of glutinous mochi rice that had been distributed to the family, the grandmother of the family kneaded the steamed rice and the mother rolled it out. A son who had returned home from the military, with a hachimaki band tied around his head, lifted a mallet overhead to pound the mochi. The caption of the photograph read, “The sound of mochi making, echoing amid the ruins, is the sound of the sturdy footsteps of the new democratic Japan.”
On the same day, the newspaper ran another article reporting that the Hiroshima City government would distribute kagami-mochi (flat, circular rice cakes) to temples and shrines that requested it. A year-end snapshot carried in the Chugoku Shimbun on a different day introduced children showing each other their hago-ita ceremonial paddles and singing New Year’s songs, as well as scenes of citizens buying New Year’s goods at a black market. The practice of kaki-uchi (cracking open oysters), a scene typical of Hiroshima in December, continued modestly despite the damage to oyster cultivation from the Makurazaki typhoon that had struck the city in September.
The Hiroshima War Orphans Foster Home, located in the area of Itsukaichi-cho (in Hiroshima City’s present-day Saeki Ward), Hiroshima Prefecture, which accommodated children who had lost their parents in the atomic bombing, was also engaged in preparations for the New Year. The home’s care log entry dated December 29, the day for mochi making, indicated that, “The pleasures of greeting the New Year. The children enjoyed even more happiness than usual at today’s mochi-making event.” On the morning of December 30, the children ate rice porridge with mochi, and the home’s teachers and staff went shopping for goods to celebrate the New Year. On December 31, there was a comprehensive housecleaning. After dinner, there was a raffle.
The birth home of Miyako Yano, 93, a resident of Hiroshima’s Nishi Ward, who was at the time a second-year student at Hiroshima First Municipal Girls’ School (Municipal Girls’ School; present-day Funairi High School), was Kanda Shrine, located in the area of Ujina-machi (in the city’s Naka Ward). The shrine accepted wounded victims in the aftermath of the bombing. Taking the opportunity of an autumn festival held in October, the shrine repaired its roof, which had collapsed due to the blast from the bombing. On New Year’s day, her family soaked mochi rice in the broth from sasage beans, instead of the traditional adzuki beans, from which were made white and pink mochi rice cakes. The cakes were then offered to the shrine. However, she recalled that, “I didn’t feel like celebrating the New Year.”
On August 6, all of her school’s 541 first-and second-year students who had been mobilized to help with building-demolition work on the south side of present-day Peace Memorial Park (in Hiroshima’s Naka Ward) died in the bombing. Ms. Yano escaped death because she had been absent that day with a stomach-ache, leaving her to experience the atomic bombing at home. When she told that story, some of the bereaved family members of her classmates burst into tears. Adults hurled insults at her. “You’re unpatriotic” or “a survivor,” they said.
“It was hard for me to live on,” said Ms. Yano. Her life changed drastically after the end of the war, although she had grown up in a world dominated by war, beginning each day by saluting with her family in the direction of the Imperial Palace. She said, “Because of the atomic bombing, both those who died and those who survived experienced hell.”
(Originally published on December 29, 2024)
