Documenting Hiroshima 80 years after A-bombing: October 13, 1948, Helen Keller expresses hope for Hiroshima’s reconstruction as “city of peace”
Feb. 7, 2025
by Kyosuke Mizukawa Senior Staff Writer
On October 13, 1948, the American welfare rights activist Hellen Keller, who died in 1968 at the age of 87, paid a visit to Hiroshima City. Having lost her hearing and sight as a result of a childhood illness, Ms. Keller learned to speak with the support of a private tutor and others and herself called for the support of people with disabilities in countries around the world. As part of her work, she was visiting Hiroshima for the first time in 11 years, following her first visit in 1937.
Ms. Keller was among the first prominent people from overseas to visit the A-bombed Hiroshima. The day prior to her visit, Hiroshima Prefectural Governor Tsunei Kusunose issued a welcome message that read, “Ms. Hellen Keller is a great figure of this century and equivalent to a state guest from the United States … I would like to share this joy with the two million residents of Hiroshima Prefecture,” urging them to deepen their understanding of issues concerning social welfare.
ong>Gratitude for welcome ong>
On the day of the visit, more than 1,000 people were there to welcome Ms. Keller in front of Hiroshima Station. She stepped onto a welcome stage specially built for the occasion, joining hands with her secretary and interpreter Polly Thompson, and expressed her feelings of gratitude. According to the Chugoku Shimbun dated October 14, Ms. Keller remarked about how moved she was by the welcome of so many people and about how the friendship represented by the presentation of a beautiful flower bouquet offered her great encouragement.
At Peace Plaza, located in what is now Peace Memorial Park, Ms. Keller laid a wreath of flowers at the City’s Memorial Monument for the War Victims. At Hiroshima City Hall, she listened to an explanation by Hiroshima City Mayor Shinso Hamai about the death toll and damage to structures caused by the atomic bombing, “shaking her head in shock,” as described in the evening newspaper Yukan Hiroshima dated October 14.
When she held a burnt rooftile commemorating the bombing presented to her by Mayor Hamai and other city officials, her expression became serious as if she was thinking back to the time of the bombing. As reported by the Chugoku Shimbun on October 15, she asked that Hiroshima become a world-renowned city of peace.
However, progress on rebuilding Hiroshima as a “city of peace,” Ms. Keller’s wish, was at a standstill at that time. Although a plan for the city’s rebuilding had been determined in fiscal 1946, with the creation of a “peace memorial park” as the plan’s main pillar, there was no prospect for securing the necessary financial resources.
ong>Petitioning national government to realize plan ong>
The restoration of existing buildings and structures was also insufficient. The October 10 issue of the Yukan Hiroshima evening newspaper carried a photograph of an elementary school in the city housed in a shack, querying, “How long will the city continue to educate our precious children in such squalid shack-like buildings?”
After the atomic bombing, tax revenue had dropped dramatically, and the city’s ability to rebuild on its own was limited due to a lack of financial resources. Moreover, because war-torn cities were scattered throughout the country, it was considered difficult for the national government to provide large subsidies limited only to Hiroshima. For these reasons, the Hiroshima City government started making an effort to demand that the national government position the city’s recovery as a “national project” and strive to realize the project.
In February 1949, Hiroshima City prepared a petition calling for the construction of a city of peace that would contribute to peace around the world. That same month, Mr. Hamai and Tsukasa Nitoguri, chair of the Hiroshima City Council, traveled to Tokyo with the petition. In explaining the purpose of the petition to the parliamentary Diet members elected from Hiroshima Prefecture, the visitors suggested that legislation proposed by the Diet members would be effective.
Tadashi Teramitsu, a native of Hiroshima City and then secretary-general of the upper House of Councilors, was asked to draft a bill. He had studied at Hiroshima High School (present-day Hiroshima University) and witnessed for himself the devastated city around three months after the bombing. “It shall be the purpose of this law to provide for the construction of Hiroshima City as a peace memorial city to symbolize the human ideal of the sincere pursuit of genuine and lasting peace.” The Hiroshima Peace Memorial City Construction Law, which includes that language in its Article 1, began moving toward realization.
(Originally published on February 7, 2025)
On October 13, 1948, the American welfare rights activist Hellen Keller, who died in 1968 at the age of 87, paid a visit to Hiroshima City. Having lost her hearing and sight as a result of a childhood illness, Ms. Keller learned to speak with the support of a private tutor and others and herself called for the support of people with disabilities in countries around the world. As part of her work, she was visiting Hiroshima for the first time in 11 years, following her first visit in 1937.
Ms. Keller was among the first prominent people from overseas to visit the A-bombed Hiroshima. The day prior to her visit, Hiroshima Prefectural Governor Tsunei Kusunose issued a welcome message that read, “Ms. Hellen Keller is a great figure of this century and equivalent to a state guest from the United States … I would like to share this joy with the two million residents of Hiroshima Prefecture,” urging them to deepen their understanding of issues concerning social welfare.
On the day of the visit, more than 1,000 people were there to welcome Ms. Keller in front of Hiroshima Station. She stepped onto a welcome stage specially built for the occasion, joining hands with her secretary and interpreter Polly Thompson, and expressed her feelings of gratitude. According to the Chugoku Shimbun dated October 14, Ms. Keller remarked about how moved she was by the welcome of so many people and about how the friendship represented by the presentation of a beautiful flower bouquet offered her great encouragement.
At Peace Plaza, located in what is now Peace Memorial Park, Ms. Keller laid a wreath of flowers at the City’s Memorial Monument for the War Victims. At Hiroshima City Hall, she listened to an explanation by Hiroshima City Mayor Shinso Hamai about the death toll and damage to structures caused by the atomic bombing, “shaking her head in shock,” as described in the evening newspaper Yukan Hiroshima dated October 14.
When she held a burnt rooftile commemorating the bombing presented to her by Mayor Hamai and other city officials, her expression became serious as if she was thinking back to the time of the bombing. As reported by the Chugoku Shimbun on October 15, she asked that Hiroshima become a world-renowned city of peace.
However, progress on rebuilding Hiroshima as a “city of peace,” Ms. Keller’s wish, was at a standstill at that time. Although a plan for the city’s rebuilding had been determined in fiscal 1946, with the creation of a “peace memorial park” as the plan’s main pillar, there was no prospect for securing the necessary financial resources.
The restoration of existing buildings and structures was also insufficient. The October 10 issue of the Yukan Hiroshima evening newspaper carried a photograph of an elementary school in the city housed in a shack, querying, “How long will the city continue to educate our precious children in such squalid shack-like buildings?”
After the atomic bombing, tax revenue had dropped dramatically, and the city’s ability to rebuild on its own was limited due to a lack of financial resources. Moreover, because war-torn cities were scattered throughout the country, it was considered difficult for the national government to provide large subsidies limited only to Hiroshima. For these reasons, the Hiroshima City government started making an effort to demand that the national government position the city’s recovery as a “national project” and strive to realize the project.
In February 1949, Hiroshima City prepared a petition calling for the construction of a city of peace that would contribute to peace around the world. That same month, Mr. Hamai and Tsukasa Nitoguri, chair of the Hiroshima City Council, traveled to Tokyo with the petition. In explaining the purpose of the petition to the parliamentary Diet members elected from Hiroshima Prefecture, the visitors suggested that legislation proposed by the Diet members would be effective.
Tadashi Teramitsu, a native of Hiroshima City and then secretary-general of the upper House of Councilors, was asked to draft a bill. He had studied at Hiroshima High School (present-day Hiroshima University) and witnessed for himself the devastated city around three months after the bombing. “It shall be the purpose of this law to provide for the construction of Hiroshima City as a peace memorial city to symbolize the human ideal of the sincere pursuit of genuine and lasting peace.” The Hiroshima Peace Memorial City Construction Law, which includes that language in its Article 1, began moving toward realization.
(Originally published on February 7, 2025)
