Sisters of deceased Municipal Girls’ School student who sent letters to former classmate found to be alive through Chugoku Shimbun: “Moved to learn that letters … have been carefully preserved”
Mar. 13, 1999
On March 12, it came to light that the sisters of Taeko Furukawa, a student at Hiroshima First Municipal Girls’ School (Municipal Girls’ School; present-day Funairi High School) who was killed in the atomic bombing, were found to be alive as a result of an article carried in the Chugoku Shimbun reporting on the preservation of two letters Taeko had sent to a former classmate.
Mutsuko Goto, 65, Ms. Furukawa’s younger sister who lives in Fujisawa City, Kanagawa Prefecture, said, “We lost my parents in the atomic bombing, which burned our home to the ground. We were moved to learn that letters written by my older sister, three years older than I was, have been carefully preserved. I would be happy to just look at them.” On behalf of another older sister who happens to be ill and lives in the area of Saeki-gun in Hiroshima Prefecture, Ms. Goto contacted the newspaper.
According to Ms. Goto, early in August 1945, just before the atomic bomb was dropped, The Furukawa family had moved to the area of Sakai-machi in Hiroshima’s Naka Ward, around 0.6 kilometers from the hypocenter, from their former address at “1-1 Enomachi, Hiroshima City,” which was written on the back of the envelopes containing Taeko’s letters. Because their father was a physician, he had not been allowed to evacuate to the city’s outskirts. Five members of their family, including the parents and older sister, were killed in the bombing at their home. Taeko had been mobilized to do the work of building demolition in an area to the south of the present-day Peace Memorial Park for the creation of fire lanes, and died with 540 other members of the Municipal Girls’ School. Ms. Goto was a sixth-grade elementary school student at the time staying in the Futami-gun district in Hiroshima Prefecture under a school-wide evacuation program.
The two letters written by Ms. Furukawa to Yasuko Aso (née Mikami), 67, a resident of Takasu 2-chome in Hiroshima City’s Nishi Ward, were dated the end of March and April 1945 and had been carefully preserved by Ms. Aso. Through the newspaper’s series of feature articles titled “Photographs of the Dead Speak: Second-year students at Hiroshima First Municipal Girls’ School,” Ms. Aso learned of the death of Ms. Furukawa, who had been in the same class when they were first-year students at the school and wrote to the Chugoku Shimbun about the existence of the letters with the note, “I’d like to return the letters to her bereaved family as a keepsake.” When that situation was reported in the paper on March 10, 1999, former classmates at Municipal Girls’ School and their relatives provided the information that Taeko’s sisters were still alive.
(Originally published on March 13, 1999)
Mutsuko Goto, 65, Ms. Furukawa’s younger sister who lives in Fujisawa City, Kanagawa Prefecture, said, “We lost my parents in the atomic bombing, which burned our home to the ground. We were moved to learn that letters written by my older sister, three years older than I was, have been carefully preserved. I would be happy to just look at them.” On behalf of another older sister who happens to be ill and lives in the area of Saeki-gun in Hiroshima Prefecture, Ms. Goto contacted the newspaper.
According to Ms. Goto, early in August 1945, just before the atomic bomb was dropped, The Furukawa family had moved to the area of Sakai-machi in Hiroshima’s Naka Ward, around 0.6 kilometers from the hypocenter, from their former address at “1-1 Enomachi, Hiroshima City,” which was written on the back of the envelopes containing Taeko’s letters. Because their father was a physician, he had not been allowed to evacuate to the city’s outskirts. Five members of their family, including the parents and older sister, were killed in the bombing at their home. Taeko had been mobilized to do the work of building demolition in an area to the south of the present-day Peace Memorial Park for the creation of fire lanes, and died with 540 other members of the Municipal Girls’ School. Ms. Goto was a sixth-grade elementary school student at the time staying in the Futami-gun district in Hiroshima Prefecture under a school-wide evacuation program.
The two letters written by Ms. Furukawa to Yasuko Aso (née Mikami), 67, a resident of Takasu 2-chome in Hiroshima City’s Nishi Ward, were dated the end of March and April 1945 and had been carefully preserved by Ms. Aso. Through the newspaper’s series of feature articles titled “Photographs of the Dead Speak: Second-year students at Hiroshima First Municipal Girls’ School,” Ms. Aso learned of the death of Ms. Furukawa, who had been in the same class when they were first-year students at the school and wrote to the Chugoku Shimbun about the existence of the letters with the note, “I’d like to return the letters to her bereaved family as a keepsake.” When that situation was reported in the paper on March 10, 1999, former classmates at Municipal Girls’ School and their relatives provided the information that Taeko’s sisters were still alive.
(Originally published on March 13, 1999)
