Family of former First Girls’ School teacher donates handwritten condolence speech read by principal two months after atomic bombing
Jul. 31, 2000
A handwritten condolence speech by the principal of Hiroshima First Municipal Girls’ School (First Girls’ School; now Funairi High School), which lost the largest number of students in the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, was found in the possession of Kazuo Mori, 63, the eldest son of a former teacher at the school and a resident of Chigasaki in Kanagawa Prefecture. Zoroku Miyagawa, the principal who died in 1975, delivered the speech at the school’s memorial service on October 30, 1945, the year the atomic bomb was dropped. Masao Mori, Kazuo’s father, was found dead in a water tank, as if he had covered the students with his body. Kazuo offered to donate the handwritten eulogy to the Funairi High School, saying: “You can tell the sorrowful feelings of the teachers who lost their students from the speech. I hope the school makes good use of it.”
On the morning of August 6, 1945, Principal Miyagawa took the first- and second-year students to the south side of the former Zaimoku-cho area, now part of the Peace Memorial Park, to help with the work of demolishing buildings. After giving instructions, he headed to the educational section of the prefectural government, located in what is now part of Higashi Ward, and narrowly escaped death.
“Corpses were lying in heaps at the site, a horrific scene that defied description. We searched for the bodies of the teachers and students but there was no way to distinguish among them.” He wrote about the situation in which he searched for the students on ten sheets of school stationery with a pen.
The eulogy was first passed to Masao’s father, then to Masao’s wife, who died in 1985, and then to Kazuo, who placed it on the family Buddhist altar. When Kazuo learned about the exhibition of materials related to the First Girls’ School, held at the Funairi High School, from an acquaintance in Hiroshima, he decided to donate it along with another eulogy delivered at the memorial service on the first anniversary of the bombing.
Hiroyuki Miyagawa, 70, the eldest son of the principal who lives in Hiroshima’s Nishi Ward, attends the school’s memorial service every year following his father’s wishes. Confirming his father’s handwriting, he said: “I could feel my father’s regret that, despite serving the country with his students, he ended up being forced to make great sacrifices.”
Kojiro Fukuhara, the principal of Funairi High School, said: “What did those involved and the families of the deceased students feel and think at the time? We would like to use the eulogies for our present students to think about peace.”
A total of 666 students and 10 teachers of the First Girls’ School died in the atomic bombing. Among the victims were 541 first- and second-year students who had been mobilized to help with the work of demolishing buildings.
(Originally published on July 31, 2000)
On the morning of August 6, 1945, Principal Miyagawa took the first- and second-year students to the south side of the former Zaimoku-cho area, now part of the Peace Memorial Park, to help with the work of demolishing buildings. After giving instructions, he headed to the educational section of the prefectural government, located in what is now part of Higashi Ward, and narrowly escaped death.
“Corpses were lying in heaps at the site, a horrific scene that defied description. We searched for the bodies of the teachers and students but there was no way to distinguish among them.” He wrote about the situation in which he searched for the students on ten sheets of school stationery with a pen.
The eulogy was first passed to Masao’s father, then to Masao’s wife, who died in 1985, and then to Kazuo, who placed it on the family Buddhist altar. When Kazuo learned about the exhibition of materials related to the First Girls’ School, held at the Funairi High School, from an acquaintance in Hiroshima, he decided to donate it along with another eulogy delivered at the memorial service on the first anniversary of the bombing.
Hiroyuki Miyagawa, 70, the eldest son of the principal who lives in Hiroshima’s Nishi Ward, attends the school’s memorial service every year following his father’s wishes. Confirming his father’s handwriting, he said: “I could feel my father’s regret that, despite serving the country with his students, he ended up being forced to make great sacrifices.”
Kojiro Fukuhara, the principal of Funairi High School, said: “What did those involved and the families of the deceased students feel and think at the time? We would like to use the eulogies for our present students to think about peace.”
A total of 666 students and 10 teachers of the First Girls’ School died in the atomic bombing. Among the victims were 541 first- and second-year students who had been mobilized to help with the work of demolishing buildings.
(Originally published on July 31, 2000)
