Documenting Hiroshima of 1946: On March 3, joint memorial service held for two prefectural schools
Mar. 3, 2025
by Maho Yamamoto, Staff Writer
On March 3, 1946, a joint memorial service was held at Sengyo Temple, located in Ujina-machi (in Hiroshima City’s present-day Minami Ward), for students of both Hiroshima Prefectural Second Girls’ High School (present-day Minami High School) and Hiroshima Prefectural College for Women (now Hiroshima Prefectural University). The two schools were located on the same grounds at the time of the atomic bombing, and a total of around 50 students were killed, including those who had been mobilized for building-demolition and other work.
According to a record of his experiences in the atomic bombing written by Shinzo Hayakawa, a professor at the women’s college, the memorial service had been held on the day of the traditional Girls’ Festival in Japan. “Although we had intended to hold it sooner, it would have been too sloppy if it had been held too soon,” he wrote. Students enrolled in the schools at the time and around 40 relatives of the victims attended the memorial service. “The only food offered were hassaku oranges. After the service, each bereaved family received two of the oranges, two large candles, and condolence money of 10 yen.”
On August 6, 1945, around 40 second-year students at the high school had been killed while working to demolish buildings in the area of Zakoba-cho (in Hiroshima’s present-day Naka Ward), approximately one kilometer from the hypocenter. Setsuko Hirata, the only survivor of the group of students who had been mobilized for work together, read out a message of condolence. She had experienced the atomic bombing while carrying rooftiles. She recalled how the area had turned pitch black, how her classmates’ faces were burned and their clothes were in tatters, and how everyone had trembled in fear.
“Why did I alone survive? Why didn’t I die? ... I wet my pillow with my tears many nights, calling out the names of my teachers and friends,” she said. She described the psychological desolation of those who survived, concluding her message with the words, “Please forgive me, my friends.”
Chieko Kiriake, 95, a resident of Hiroshima’s Asaminami Ward, was a fourth-year student at the girls’ high school at the time of the bombing. She engaged in the work of cremating the remains of younger students that had been collected on the school grounds and picked out their bones. Each time she would attend the memorial service, she experienced the feeling that, “The parents who had lost their children must have been angry with me deep down, for which I was filled with remorse.”
Two of the college’s students who had been absent from the school on August 6 had died in the bombing, and six others had gone missing. At the joint memorial service, Tomiko Mochizuki, a second-year student who had lost her parents in the bombing, read a message of condolence and vowed to build a foundation for peace. Said Ms. Mochizuki, “When winter comes, spring is not far behind.”
(Originally published on March 3, 2025)
On March 3, 1946, a joint memorial service was held at Sengyo Temple, located in Ujina-machi (in Hiroshima City’s present-day Minami Ward), for students of both Hiroshima Prefectural Second Girls’ High School (present-day Minami High School) and Hiroshima Prefectural College for Women (now Hiroshima Prefectural University). The two schools were located on the same grounds at the time of the atomic bombing, and a total of around 50 students were killed, including those who had been mobilized for building-demolition and other work.
According to a record of his experiences in the atomic bombing written by Shinzo Hayakawa, a professor at the women’s college, the memorial service had been held on the day of the traditional Girls’ Festival in Japan. “Although we had intended to hold it sooner, it would have been too sloppy if it had been held too soon,” he wrote. Students enrolled in the schools at the time and around 40 relatives of the victims attended the memorial service. “The only food offered were hassaku oranges. After the service, each bereaved family received two of the oranges, two large candles, and condolence money of 10 yen.”
On August 6, 1945, around 40 second-year students at the high school had been killed while working to demolish buildings in the area of Zakoba-cho (in Hiroshima’s present-day Naka Ward), approximately one kilometer from the hypocenter. Setsuko Hirata, the only survivor of the group of students who had been mobilized for work together, read out a message of condolence. She had experienced the atomic bombing while carrying rooftiles. She recalled how the area had turned pitch black, how her classmates’ faces were burned and their clothes were in tatters, and how everyone had trembled in fear.
“Why did I alone survive? Why didn’t I die? ... I wet my pillow with my tears many nights, calling out the names of my teachers and friends,” she said. She described the psychological desolation of those who survived, concluding her message with the words, “Please forgive me, my friends.”
Chieko Kiriake, 95, a resident of Hiroshima’s Asaminami Ward, was a fourth-year student at the girls’ high school at the time of the bombing. She engaged in the work of cremating the remains of younger students that had been collected on the school grounds and picked out their bones. Each time she would attend the memorial service, she experienced the feeling that, “The parents who had lost their children must have been angry with me deep down, for which I was filled with remorse.”
Two of the college’s students who had been absent from the school on August 6 had died in the bombing, and six others had gone missing. At the joint memorial service, Tomiko Mochizuki, a second-year student who had lost her parents in the bombing, read a message of condolence and vowed to build a foundation for peace. Said Ms. Mochizuki, “When winter comes, spring is not far behind.”
(Originally published on March 3, 2025)
