Record of Hiroshima—Photographs of the Dead Speak: 243 students at First Girls’ School confirmed dead in bombing, remains of 75 percent still unrecovered
Jun. 22, 2000
On August 6, 1945, when the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima City, all of the first-year students at Hiroshima First Municipal Girls’ High School (First Girls’ School; present-day Funairi High School) that had been mobilized for work near the hypocenter under the national government’s Student Labor Service Order were killed. On June 21, 2000, the Chugoku Shimbun compiled a report on the circumstances of the first-year students’ deaths with the help of their bereaved families. Detailed information was confirmed for 243 of the 277 first-year students whose names are engraved on the A-bomb monument for the Hiroshima Municipal Girls’ High School, standing on the site of the disaster to the south of present-day Peace Memorial Park (in Hiroshima’s Naka Ward). Of the confirmed deaths, 226 students, or 93 percent of the total, were killed in the bombing that day, with the remains of 184 of the students, or around three out of four, still not found despite desperate efforts by their families and others to locate them.
The first-year students at First Girls’ School, along with second-year students (264 of whom were killed in the bombing), had been mobilized to demolish buildings in the area that is now Peace Boulevard in the former Nakajima district, the location of the Hiroshima Prefectural government offices at the time, to create firebreaks in case of air raids.
The newspaper’s investigation involved a search for the bereaved family of each and every student killed in the bombing. Our efforts were based on materials compiled by the association of bereaved family members of A-bomb victims at the First Girls’ School (chaired by Yasuo Sanada), records that had been passed on to Funairi High School, and information provided to the Chugoku Shimbun when the newspaper did the work of compiling information last year on the circumstances of damage suffered by the second-year students (with 226 such students identified).
Of the 243 students whose detailed information was confirmed, 226 were confirmed or determined by their bereaved families to have died on August 6, three on August 7, and four on August 8, among others, with the number of student deaths in August totaling 241. All of the students, including two who experienced the atomic bombing on their way to work, had died by September 4. Only 12 students died in the presence of their families.
Most of the students lived in the older part of Hiroshima City on the Hiroshima river delta with their families. By the end of 1945, a total of 206 of the fathers, mothers, and siblings, whether they had been at home or mobilized to work elsewhere on the morning of the atomic bombing, had died. Among the sisters who attended First Girls’ School together, eight were killed as a result of the bombing.
First Girls’ School was located in the present-day area of Funairikawaguchi-cho, in Hiroshima’s Naka Ward, 2.2 kilometers from the hypocenter, and its buildings were spared total destruction. Nevertheless, a total of 676 people associated with the school were killed in the bombing—all of the school’s 666 students who had been mobilized for the war effort, from first-year to fourth-year and advanced students, as well as 10 teachers who were supervising the students at the time. That was the highest victim number of any school from the atomic bombing of Hiroshima.
(Originally published on June 22, 2000)
The first-year students at First Girls’ School, along with second-year students (264 of whom were killed in the bombing), had been mobilized to demolish buildings in the area that is now Peace Boulevard in the former Nakajima district, the location of the Hiroshima Prefectural government offices at the time, to create firebreaks in case of air raids.
The newspaper’s investigation involved a search for the bereaved family of each and every student killed in the bombing. Our efforts were based on materials compiled by the association of bereaved family members of A-bomb victims at the First Girls’ School (chaired by Yasuo Sanada), records that had been passed on to Funairi High School, and information provided to the Chugoku Shimbun when the newspaper did the work of compiling information last year on the circumstances of damage suffered by the second-year students (with 226 such students identified).
Of the 243 students whose detailed information was confirmed, 226 were confirmed or determined by their bereaved families to have died on August 6, three on August 7, and four on August 8, among others, with the number of student deaths in August totaling 241. All of the students, including two who experienced the atomic bombing on their way to work, had died by September 4. Only 12 students died in the presence of their families.
Most of the students lived in the older part of Hiroshima City on the Hiroshima river delta with their families. By the end of 1945, a total of 206 of the fathers, mothers, and siblings, whether they had been at home or mobilized to work elsewhere on the morning of the atomic bombing, had died. Among the sisters who attended First Girls’ School together, eight were killed as a result of the bombing.
First Girls’ School was located in the present-day area of Funairikawaguchi-cho, in Hiroshima’s Naka Ward, 2.2 kilometers from the hypocenter, and its buildings were spared total destruction. Nevertheless, a total of 676 people associated with the school were killed in the bombing—all of the school’s 666 students who had been mobilized for the war effort, from first-year to fourth-year and advanced students, as well as 10 teachers who were supervising the students at the time. That was the highest victim number of any school from the atomic bombing of Hiroshima.
(Originally published on June 22, 2000)
