Documenting Hiroshima of 1946: February 20, Fukuya Department Store reopens
Feb. 20, 2025
by Maho Yamamoto, Staff Writer
On February 20, 1946, the Fukuya Department Store, in Hiroshima’s Hatchobori area (in the city’s present-day Naka Ward), reopened. The building, with eight floors aboveground and two underground, had survived the atomic bombing and subsequent fires, and renovations of its first floor for serving customers were finished. The department store placed an advertisement in the Chugoku Shimbun on the same date with greetings on its open, announcing, “We will open sections selling groceries, household items, and cosmetics, as well as the popular Fukuya Cafeteria, and are ready to begin serving our customers.”
The publication titled Fukuya 50-nen Shi (in English, ‘50-year history of Fukuya Department Store’), published in 1980, serves as a record of that time. “The department store reopened with 38 male and 30 female staff members, including new employees. The joy from achieving the plan to reopen the store on its own in only five months was significant,” reads the publication.
Although there was not a wide range of items, goods from military stockpiles were also sold, and small, dried sardines and shiitake mushrooms flew off the shelves. Products used as a substitute for the staple food of rice — such as “seaweed noodles,” kabocha, and “Eba dango (dumplings)” — were served at the cafeteria, and people formed lines to buy “corn sponge cake.”
While selling Japanese sake for stand-up drinking in the store starting on New Year’s day, renovations were also being made inside the store. The third floor and above represented leased office space, and around 60 companies, including banks and construction companies, had moved into the building. In May, the Fukuya Movie Theater, specializing in Western films, opened. But in 1947, the second floor of the department store was requisitioned by the occupation forces in Japan, and with that, it was not until 1953 that the store was able to fully resume operations. Fukuya was the only department store in the area until the Hiroshima Tenmaya Department Store opened the following year.
Toru Moriwaki, 81, a resident of Hiroshima’s Aki Ward, was repatriated from Manchuria (in China’s present-day northeast) in 1946 and moved to the area of Nagarekawa-cho (now part of Hiroshima’s Naka Ward) near the Fukuya Department Store, where his uncle was living. Mr. Moriwaki fondly recalled, “Being able to go to Fukuya on my birthday with my family was a special occasion.” Before the war, both his grandfather and father had worked at the department store. And, when a university student, he also worked part-time at the store, including in the curtain section, to earn pocket money.
(Originally published on February 20, 2025)
On February 20, 1946, the Fukuya Department Store, in Hiroshima’s Hatchobori area (in the city’s present-day Naka Ward), reopened. The building, with eight floors aboveground and two underground, had survived the atomic bombing and subsequent fires, and renovations of its first floor for serving customers were finished. The department store placed an advertisement in the Chugoku Shimbun on the same date with greetings on its open, announcing, “We will open sections selling groceries, household items, and cosmetics, as well as the popular Fukuya Cafeteria, and are ready to begin serving our customers.”
The publication titled Fukuya 50-nen Shi (in English, ‘50-year history of Fukuya Department Store’), published in 1980, serves as a record of that time. “The department store reopened with 38 male and 30 female staff members, including new employees. The joy from achieving the plan to reopen the store on its own in only five months was significant,” reads the publication.
Although there was not a wide range of items, goods from military stockpiles were also sold, and small, dried sardines and shiitake mushrooms flew off the shelves. Products used as a substitute for the staple food of rice — such as “seaweed noodles,” kabocha, and “Eba dango (dumplings)” — were served at the cafeteria, and people formed lines to buy “corn sponge cake.”
While selling Japanese sake for stand-up drinking in the store starting on New Year’s day, renovations were also being made inside the store. The third floor and above represented leased office space, and around 60 companies, including banks and construction companies, had moved into the building. In May, the Fukuya Movie Theater, specializing in Western films, opened. But in 1947, the second floor of the department store was requisitioned by the occupation forces in Japan, and with that, it was not until 1953 that the store was able to fully resume operations. Fukuya was the only department store in the area until the Hiroshima Tenmaya Department Store opened the following year.
Toru Moriwaki, 81, a resident of Hiroshima’s Aki Ward, was repatriated from Manchuria (in China’s present-day northeast) in 1946 and moved to the area of Nagarekawa-cho (now part of Hiroshima’s Naka Ward) near the Fukuya Department Store, where his uncle was living. Mr. Moriwaki fondly recalled, “Being able to go to Fukuya on my birthday with my family was a special occasion.” Before the war, both his grandfather and father had worked at the department store. And, when a university student, he also worked part-time at the store, including in the curtain section, to earn pocket money.
(Originally published on February 20, 2025)
