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The Chugoku Shimbun has been investigating the reality of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, deemed the start of the nuclear age, and on December 14, the newspaper compiled a report on damages to the former Tenjin-machi Minamigumi area, the hypocenter area that later turned into Peace Memorial Park and Peace Boulevard. The survey carried out by the newspaper confirmed the deaths of 88 residents of the area between August 6, 1945—the day the atomic bomb was dropped—and the end of that year. The number of victims among the overall Tenjin-machi residents, including the 163 deaths in the Tenjin-machi Kitagumi area revealed in the paper’s previous survey on October 14, totaled 251 people. By the end of 1945, 81 percent of those living in the combined district had died from the bombing.

The Tenjin-machi Minamigumi area was located between the southeast part of what is today Peace Memorial Park, where the East Building of the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum now stands, and around Peace Boulevard, comprising an area between 420 and 600 meters from the hypocenter. A restored map of the entire area made public in May of this year, created on the basis of the memories of the committee members who erected and maintain the Minamigumi memorial monument (chaired by Mamoru Yamamoto) on the right bank of Motoyasu River, shows the names of 180 households. The survey was conducted with the cooperation of bereaved families and citizens.

Around April 1945, demolition work for the creation of fire lanes began around what is now Peace Boulevard and to its south in the Tenjin-machi Minamigumi area based on an order from Japan’s national government passed down to Hiroshima City. The survey identified the circumstances surrounding the deaths of people in 33 of the households: 16 of the 24 households that had avoided eviction and 17 households that had relocated to other areas.

Of the 88 victims who had died by the end of 1945, the bereaved families of 74 had no choice but to register the date of death as “August 6” and engrave the names of the deceased on grave markers without even finding remains. In addition, three survivors died within a period of seven years after suffering from radiation effects.

The highest number of victims per household was six, in three households—the members of two of the households lived in an area that had avoided eviction, with the members of one having relocated to Tenjin-machi Kitagumi. Two households had lost all five of their family members, including parents and children. Seventeen families, who were forced to relocate regardless of whether or not they had a place to live, became victims of the bombing at the homes of relatives or acquaintances in the downtown area where they had been staying or at other places where they had been mobilized for building-demolition work.

Akio Kubota, 71, a resident of Aiofutajima in Yamaguchi City, learned of the deaths of six members of his family, including his parents, after he was discharged from the military at the beginning of September 1945. “I will never forget the sight of skeletons piled up like coal along the Motoyasu River. It was indescribably cruel,” said Mr. Kubota.

Construction of the Hiroshima National Peace Memorial Hall for the Atomic Bomb Victims in Peace Memorial Park will begin next fiscal year in the area of what once was Tenjin-machi Kitagumi, with the aim of opening in 2002. Discussions are ongoing with the city government and local A-bomb survivor groups regarding how the facility should be used to commemorate the victims and what the exhibits should include.

(Originally published on December 15, 1998)