Documenting Hiroshima of 1946: Mid-February, young woman determines to once again pursue nursing career after healing from A-bomb injuries
Feb. 15, 2025
by Maho Yamamoto, Staff Writer
In mid-February 1946, Chieko Asano (who died in 2020 at the age of 92), then a first-year student in a nurse training school affiliated with the Hiroshima Red Cross Hospital (in Hiroshima City’s present-day Naka Ward), returned to the hospital after healing from injuries she had sustained in the atomic bombing. Ms. Asano was one of the nurse trainees who had experienced the bombing four months after entering the school as members of the program’s 10th class of students and engaged in aiding the wounded at the hospital. Many of the original 203 classmates who were enrolled with Ms. Asano at the school were ultimately unable to return.
Ms. Asano wrote in a collection of personal accounts titled ‘Hiroshima’ Yonkagetsu no Kizuna (in English, ‘Hiroshima, a four-month bond’), which also included accounts written by classmates and was published in 2003, “I found that blankets were being used in place of room doors, and that the toilets were still temporary, just like before.” Textbooks had burned in fires, with no paper remaining with which to take notes. Following the lead of the students in grades above her, she continued days of simultaneously studying and engaging in the work of nursing. She once bottle fed a baby who had been abandoned in front of the hospital entrance.
Ms. Asano recalls such experiences in Inochi no Tou (‘Tower of life’), a collection of personal accounts from people affiliated with the hospital that was published in 1992. “I had to verify the things I had learned at the hospital through my five senses by taking in knowledge through my ears, confirming it, and making it my own,” she wrote. That included such pragmatic solutions as, due to insufficient equipment and materials, placing bandages in an empty can and heating the can for sterilization.
The hospital, a steel-framed building located around 1.5 kilometers from the hypocenter that did not collapse or burn down in the bombing, was overwhelmed by the many wounded who had rushed there for help. At the time of the bombing, Ms. Asano and the other students had been isolated within the hospital and were receiving treatment for suspected cases of dysentery. Although she had suffered injuries to her legs and hands in the bombing, she took on the job of sterilizing the temporary toilets, among other work.
Around three weeks later, she received permission to return to her hometown. Ms. Asano stayed at her parents’ home in the area of Kozan-cho in Hiroshima Prefecture (in present-day Sera-cho) to heal from her injuries and fight a declining white blood cell count. When she recovered, she decided to once again pursue her career as a nurse, based on advice she received from her father, who had said, “Why don’t you try to return to the basics.” She also received a letter from Oshie Kinutani, head nurse at the nursing school who died in 2006 at the age of 97, requesting that Ms. Asano return to the school.
Of the 408 students that had been enrolled in the school at the time of the atomic bombing, 22 died. That 10th class of nursing students graduated from the school in 1947. The graduates numbered 70 students, around one-third the total number initially admitted to the school. After graduation, Ms. Asano worked as a school nurse for many years. Upon retirement from her work in 1989, in remembrance of her classmates who had died in the bombing, she offered flower bouquets she had received from her students to the Cenotaph for the A-bomb Victims at Peace Memorial Park (in Hiroshima’s Naka Ward), and to the memorial monument located at the Hiroshima Red Cross Hospital & Atomic-bomb Survivors Hospital.
(Originally published on February 15, 2025)
In mid-February 1946, Chieko Asano (who died in 2020 at the age of 92), then a first-year student in a nurse training school affiliated with the Hiroshima Red Cross Hospital (in Hiroshima City’s present-day Naka Ward), returned to the hospital after healing from injuries she had sustained in the atomic bombing. Ms. Asano was one of the nurse trainees who had experienced the bombing four months after entering the school as members of the program’s 10th class of students and engaged in aiding the wounded at the hospital. Many of the original 203 classmates who were enrolled with Ms. Asano at the school were ultimately unable to return.
Ms. Asano wrote in a collection of personal accounts titled ‘Hiroshima’ Yonkagetsu no Kizuna (in English, ‘Hiroshima, a four-month bond’), which also included accounts written by classmates and was published in 2003, “I found that blankets were being used in place of room doors, and that the toilets were still temporary, just like before.” Textbooks had burned in fires, with no paper remaining with which to take notes. Following the lead of the students in grades above her, she continued days of simultaneously studying and engaging in the work of nursing. She once bottle fed a baby who had been abandoned in front of the hospital entrance.
Ms. Asano recalls such experiences in Inochi no Tou (‘Tower of life’), a collection of personal accounts from people affiliated with the hospital that was published in 1992. “I had to verify the things I had learned at the hospital through my five senses by taking in knowledge through my ears, confirming it, and making it my own,” she wrote. That included such pragmatic solutions as, due to insufficient equipment and materials, placing bandages in an empty can and heating the can for sterilization.
The hospital, a steel-framed building located around 1.5 kilometers from the hypocenter that did not collapse or burn down in the bombing, was overwhelmed by the many wounded who had rushed there for help. At the time of the bombing, Ms. Asano and the other students had been isolated within the hospital and were receiving treatment for suspected cases of dysentery. Although she had suffered injuries to her legs and hands in the bombing, she took on the job of sterilizing the temporary toilets, among other work.
Around three weeks later, she received permission to return to her hometown. Ms. Asano stayed at her parents’ home in the area of Kozan-cho in Hiroshima Prefecture (in present-day Sera-cho) to heal from her injuries and fight a declining white blood cell count. When she recovered, she decided to once again pursue her career as a nurse, based on advice she received from her father, who had said, “Why don’t you try to return to the basics.” She also received a letter from Oshie Kinutani, head nurse at the nursing school who died in 2006 at the age of 97, requesting that Ms. Asano return to the school.
Of the 408 students that had been enrolled in the school at the time of the atomic bombing, 22 died. That 10th class of nursing students graduated from the school in 1947. The graduates numbered 70 students, around one-third the total number initially admitted to the school. After graduation, Ms. Asano worked as a school nurse for many years. Upon retirement from her work in 1989, in remembrance of her classmates who had died in the bombing, she offered flower bouquets she had received from her students to the Cenotaph for the A-bomb Victims at Peace Memorial Park (in Hiroshima’s Naka Ward), and to the memorial monument located at the Hiroshima Red Cross Hospital & Atomic-bomb Survivors Hospital.
(Originally published on February 15, 2025)
