436 die in Nakajima Honmachi due to atomic bombing, 180 deaths confirmed on south side of street: Survey by Chugoku Shimbun
Aug. 3, 1999
Nakajima Honmachi area was located where present-day Peace Memorial Park in Hiroshima’s Naka Ward is located. The Chugoku Shimbun has interviewed victims’ family members and summarized the results of the survey on August 3. It confirmed 180 people exposed to the atomic bomb on the south side of Nakajima Hondori Street, which ran east and west in what is now the park, died before the end of 1945, the year of the atomic bombing. Combined with the 256 deaths on the north side of the street reported in the July 13 issue of the newspaper, including one newly identified after publication, the total number of victims in the area has reached 436. Separately, of the 435 people who actually lived in Nakajima Hommachi, 81%, or 352 people, had died by the end of 1945.
As of August 6, 1945, there were 175 people in 56 households living on the south side of the street, excluding evacuated schoolchildren and those who had been conscripted. Of them, 145 died by the end of 1945. Among those who had evacuated out of the area or who had to move to a different area as their houses had been demolished to create fire breaks, 24 were killed while being mobilized to work, or at their new residences. Eight people who came to work and three visiting relatives in Nakajima Honmachi were killed.
More information has been gained about those exposed to the bomb at the Fuel Hall, a building that survived the atomic bombing and is now used as the Rest House in the peace park by the city government. Only one person, who was in the basement, survived. According to his memoir contributed in 1950 to the city’s Accounts of A-bomb experiences, it is believed that 37 people were in the building then. At this time, the detailed circumstances of the deaths of five people have been clarified through the testimonies of their families, bringing the total number of directly confirmed deaths among its workers to seven when combined with those confirmed in previous surveys.
The survey was conducted based on the names inscribed in a monument to A-bomb victims erected in the park in 1973 by a group called Nakajima Peace Kannon Association, which is composed of former residents of Nakajima Honmachi. The monument was restored in 1989. Out of the 425 people whose names are engraved in the monument, 383, or 90%, including three residents from the Tenjin-machi Minamigumi neighborhood, have been surveyed, along with 78 newly identified victims.
As if to show the immense devastation of the atomic bombing, however, some families died out after the monument was erected. Additionally, due to changes in generations, how some victims died remains unclear to their relatives. The entire picture has not been drawn as to what happened to the victims in the hypocenter area.
Peace Memorial Park, which has been developed around the former Nakajima area, the hypocenter area, is the venue for the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Ceremony to be held from 8:00 a.m. on August 6.
(Originally published on August 3, 1999)
As of August 6, 1945, there were 175 people in 56 households living on the south side of the street, excluding evacuated schoolchildren and those who had been conscripted. Of them, 145 died by the end of 1945. Among those who had evacuated out of the area or who had to move to a different area as their houses had been demolished to create fire breaks, 24 were killed while being mobilized to work, or at their new residences. Eight people who came to work and three visiting relatives in Nakajima Honmachi were killed.
More information has been gained about those exposed to the bomb at the Fuel Hall, a building that survived the atomic bombing and is now used as the Rest House in the peace park by the city government. Only one person, who was in the basement, survived. According to his memoir contributed in 1950 to the city’s Accounts of A-bomb experiences, it is believed that 37 people were in the building then. At this time, the detailed circumstances of the deaths of five people have been clarified through the testimonies of their families, bringing the total number of directly confirmed deaths among its workers to seven when combined with those confirmed in previous surveys.
The survey was conducted based on the names inscribed in a monument to A-bomb victims erected in the park in 1973 by a group called Nakajima Peace Kannon Association, which is composed of former residents of Nakajima Honmachi. The monument was restored in 1989. Out of the 425 people whose names are engraved in the monument, 383, or 90%, including three residents from the Tenjin-machi Minamigumi neighborhood, have been surveyed, along with 78 newly identified victims.
As if to show the immense devastation of the atomic bombing, however, some families died out after the monument was erected. Additionally, due to changes in generations, how some victims died remains unclear to their relatives. The entire picture has not been drawn as to what happened to the victims in the hypocenter area.
Peace Memorial Park, which has been developed around the former Nakajima area, the hypocenter area, is the venue for the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Ceremony to be held from 8:00 a.m. on August 6.
(Originally published on August 3, 1999)
