Documenting Hiroshima 80 years after A-bombing: In May 1946, Hiroshima Nagarekawa Church holds service in scorched ruins
May 7, 2025
by Maho Yamamoto, Staff Writer
In May 1946, Hiroshima Nagarekawa Church, located in the area of Kaminagarekawa-cho (in Hiroshima City’s present-day Naka Ward), held its first service in the scorched ruins. Church members gathered in front of the outer walls of the church building, which had barely survived the atomic bombing.
According to the church, the church leadership had agreed to continue holding its services in the scorched ruins, engage in cleaning up the ruins with everyone together following the services, and hold home fellowship meetings in each neighborhood, among other activities. Students from Hiroshima Denki School (present-day Hiroshima Kokusai Gakuin High School), together with the school’s principal, Torataro Tsuru, built an altar from incinerated bricks.
The church, located around 900 meters from the hypocenter, had burned to the ground in the atomic bombing, leaving only the outer walls of its building. After the bombing, the home of a church member behind Ushita National School (now Ushita Elementary School, in Hiroshima’s present-day Higashi Ward) was leased for the church by its minister, Kiyoshi Tanimoto, for use as the church’s office. In the spring of that year, several church members visited the scorched ruins of the church and offered prayers of repentance, which served as the impetus for the start of services there. In a book he published in 1976, Reverend Tanimoto recalled that as the “starting point for recovery” of the church.
Miyoko Matsubara, a first-year student at Hiroshima Girls’ Commercial School (present-day Hiroshima Shoyo High School) at the time of the atomic bombing who died in 2018 at the age of 85, was one of those who attended the church. She had been exposed to the flash of light from the bombing while engaged in building-demolition work at a site in the area of Tsurumi-cho (in the city’s present-day Naka Ward), suffering burns over 30% of her body.
Those who suffered physical and psychological trauma from the atomic bombing would gather at the church to “listen to stories from the Bible, sing hymns together, and find peace of mind in its tranquil atmosphere,” as was written in Genbaku Hibakusha wa Uttaeru (in English, ‘Appeals from A-bomb survivors’), a collection of personal accounts of the atomic bombing published in 1988. After graduation from the girls’ school, Ms. Matsubara lived and worked at a foster home for visually impaired children that had been established by Reverend Tanimoto and others.
The church would be rebuilt in 1952. By the end of 1970, it moved to a new building at its present location in the area of Kaminobori-cho, in Hiroshima’s Naka Ward. The “A-bomb Cross,” made from A-bombed trees that had remained in the scorched ruins, continues to hang inside the chapel.
(Originally published on May 7, 2025)
In May 1946, Hiroshima Nagarekawa Church, located in the area of Kaminagarekawa-cho (in Hiroshima City’s present-day Naka Ward), held its first service in the scorched ruins. Church members gathered in front of the outer walls of the church building, which had barely survived the atomic bombing.
According to the church, the church leadership had agreed to continue holding its services in the scorched ruins, engage in cleaning up the ruins with everyone together following the services, and hold home fellowship meetings in each neighborhood, among other activities. Students from Hiroshima Denki School (present-day Hiroshima Kokusai Gakuin High School), together with the school’s principal, Torataro Tsuru, built an altar from incinerated bricks.
The church, located around 900 meters from the hypocenter, had burned to the ground in the atomic bombing, leaving only the outer walls of its building. After the bombing, the home of a church member behind Ushita National School (now Ushita Elementary School, in Hiroshima’s present-day Higashi Ward) was leased for the church by its minister, Kiyoshi Tanimoto, for use as the church’s office. In the spring of that year, several church members visited the scorched ruins of the church and offered prayers of repentance, which served as the impetus for the start of services there. In a book he published in 1976, Reverend Tanimoto recalled that as the “starting point for recovery” of the church.
Miyoko Matsubara, a first-year student at Hiroshima Girls’ Commercial School (present-day Hiroshima Shoyo High School) at the time of the atomic bombing who died in 2018 at the age of 85, was one of those who attended the church. She had been exposed to the flash of light from the bombing while engaged in building-demolition work at a site in the area of Tsurumi-cho (in the city’s present-day Naka Ward), suffering burns over 30% of her body.
Those who suffered physical and psychological trauma from the atomic bombing would gather at the church to “listen to stories from the Bible, sing hymns together, and find peace of mind in its tranquil atmosphere,” as was written in Genbaku Hibakusha wa Uttaeru (in English, ‘Appeals from A-bomb survivors’), a collection of personal accounts of the atomic bombing published in 1988. After graduation from the girls’ school, Ms. Matsubara lived and worked at a foster home for visually impaired children that had been established by Reverend Tanimoto and others.
The church would be rebuilt in 1952. By the end of 1970, it moved to a new building at its present location in the area of Kaminobori-cho, in Hiroshima’s Naka Ward. The “A-bomb Cross,” made from A-bombed trees that had remained in the scorched ruins, continues to hang inside the chapel.
(Originally published on May 7, 2025)
