Documenting Hiroshima of 1945: In November, classes continue in classroom without wall
Nov. 22, 2024
by Kyosuke Mizukawa, Senior Staff Writer
In November, 1945, Shudo Junior High School (present-day Shudo Junior and Senior High School), in Minamisenda-machi (in Hiroshima City’s present-day Naka Ward), continued to suffer from a shortage of classrooms. Located around 2.4 kilometers south of the hypocenter, the school building avoided being burned down by the fires after the bombing mostly due to the firefighting efforts by school staff and neighborhood residents, but most of the building had collapsed.
According to Shudo Gakuen-shi (in English, ‘Shudo school history’), published in 1978, the school made temporary repairs to certain parts of the half-destroyed school building, leading to four classrooms being available for use, and resumed classes starting September 15. However, because the damage to the roof and walls of the building was severe, classes had to be cancelled on rainy days. In a photograph taken by the United States Strategic Bombing Survey team, students can be seen on the first floor of the building lacking a wall on one side.
At that time, the school had around 1,000 students, requiring at least 20 classrooms. In January 1946, people affiliated with the school and students’ parents and guardians held a ceremony to establish a support group for restoration of the school, launching fund-raising activities for full-scale repairs and the construction of a makeshift school building, in consideration of the expected enrollment of new students in April of that year.
Confirmation of the safety of students and a survey to understand their whereabouts continued even three months after the bombing. The Chugoku Shimbun dated November 14, 1945, posted a notice from the Shudo Junior High School that read, “We ask that those students who have not attended school since the bombing contact us immediately.” The number of school students who died in the bombing was confirmed to total 188 people.
Some students suffered a drastic change in their living situation and were unable to return to the school. Minoru Ozaki, a second-year student at the time who died in October this year at the age of 92, drew an image that depicted his experience of giving up re-enrolling in the school and donated the drawing to the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum.
Mr. Ozaki lost his grandmother, mother, and younger sister in the bombing. His father, an electrical engineer, was in the former Manchuria (northeast part of China) at the time of the bombing, and finally returned to Japan around two years after the end of the war, leaving Mr. Ozaki, his older sister, and younger brother to fend for themselves. To earn a living, Mr. Ozaki applied for a position as a wireless operator at a railway company in Hiroshima, and began work in December 1945. The title of his drawing is “Getting a job at the age of 13.” He added in writing to the drawing that that applicants for the job had to be at least 15 years of age, but he successfully passed the screening by falsifying his age based on advice received from someone with deep humanity who was involved in the hiring process on the company side and who understood Mr. Ozaki’s situation.
(Originally published on November 22, 2024)
In November, 1945, Shudo Junior High School (present-day Shudo Junior and Senior High School), in Minamisenda-machi (in Hiroshima City’s present-day Naka Ward), continued to suffer from a shortage of classrooms. Located around 2.4 kilometers south of the hypocenter, the school building avoided being burned down by the fires after the bombing mostly due to the firefighting efforts by school staff and neighborhood residents, but most of the building had collapsed.
According to Shudo Gakuen-shi (in English, ‘Shudo school history’), published in 1978, the school made temporary repairs to certain parts of the half-destroyed school building, leading to four classrooms being available for use, and resumed classes starting September 15. However, because the damage to the roof and walls of the building was severe, classes had to be cancelled on rainy days. In a photograph taken by the United States Strategic Bombing Survey team, students can be seen on the first floor of the building lacking a wall on one side.
At that time, the school had around 1,000 students, requiring at least 20 classrooms. In January 1946, people affiliated with the school and students’ parents and guardians held a ceremony to establish a support group for restoration of the school, launching fund-raising activities for full-scale repairs and the construction of a makeshift school building, in consideration of the expected enrollment of new students in April of that year.
Confirmation of the safety of students and a survey to understand their whereabouts continued even three months after the bombing. The Chugoku Shimbun dated November 14, 1945, posted a notice from the Shudo Junior High School that read, “We ask that those students who have not attended school since the bombing contact us immediately.” The number of school students who died in the bombing was confirmed to total 188 people.
Some students suffered a drastic change in their living situation and were unable to return to the school. Minoru Ozaki, a second-year student at the time who died in October this year at the age of 92, drew an image that depicted his experience of giving up re-enrolling in the school and donated the drawing to the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum.
Mr. Ozaki lost his grandmother, mother, and younger sister in the bombing. His father, an electrical engineer, was in the former Manchuria (northeast part of China) at the time of the bombing, and finally returned to Japan around two years after the end of the war, leaving Mr. Ozaki, his older sister, and younger brother to fend for themselves. To earn a living, Mr. Ozaki applied for a position as a wireless operator at a railway company in Hiroshima, and began work in December 1945. The title of his drawing is “Getting a job at the age of 13.” He added in writing to the drawing that that applicants for the job had to be at least 15 years of age, but he successfully passed the screening by falsifying his age based on advice received from someone with deep humanity who was involved in the hiring process on the company side and who understood Mr. Ozaki’s situation.
(Originally published on November 22, 2024)
