News

by Michio Shimotaka, Staff Writer

In October 1960, Fumiko Taketani (née Segawa), 16 at the time who is now 81 and lives in Hiroshima’s Higashi Ward, suddenly received news from her parents living in the city while she was working as an apprentice at a barbershop there. Ms. Taketani’s parents informed her that her older brother might still be alive. Yasunori Segawa had been two years older than his sister when he went missing 15 years before then. “I was so surprised I couldn’t believe it,” said Ms. Taketani.

On August 6, 1945, Fumiko, then one year of age, experienced the atomic bombing at the birth home of her mother, Kikue (who died in 2022 at the age of 103), located in the area of Higashikanon-machi (in Hiroshima’s present-day Nishi Ward). Amidst the chaos with fires approaching, her aunt had taken her from their collapsed home and fled. Her mother and older sister were also safe, but they were unable to locate Yasunori, who was three at the time. Her grandfather had been crushed to death under the collapsed home.

Her family regularly visited the scorched ruins looking for Yasunori, whose whereabouts were still unknown. The family continued to search for him after her father, Hiroshi, who died in 1999 at the age of 87, had returned after being demobilized from the military. Despite their efforts, there were no signs of him anywhere. According to a personal account written by Hiroshi included in the collection titled Record of the Hiroshima A-bomb War Disaster, published in 1971, his family held memorial services on the second and sixth anniversaries of his death. Fumiko grew up being told the story that, “Your older brother died in the atomic bombing.”

Article seeking A-bomb orphan’s parents carried in newspaper

The impetus for their reunion was an article carried in the Asahi Shimbun on October 4, 1960, which reported on an effort to look for the parents of a certain orphan. Mr. and Ms. Segawa looked at the photograph of the boy in the newspaper and thought they could see semblances of Yasunori.

However, the boy’s name was Katsumi Nakamura, a name given him after he had been placed in the Hiroshima War Orphans Foster Home, located in the area of Itsukaichi-cho (in Hiroshima City’s present-day Saeki Ward), which was established at the end of 1945, because he had been too young to speak his actual name. The young boy had been saved by someone after he experienced the atomic bombing, and he survived at a shelter for lost children set up at Hijiyama National School (present-day Hijiyama Elementary School, in the city’s Minami Ward). He was then transferred to an education facility designed to care for children who had lost parents in the atomic bombing.

On October 12, eight days after the article appeared in the newspaper, Mr. and Mrs. Segawa visited the Hiroshima Municipal Children’s Home (the renamed Hiroshima War Orphans Foster Home) and met with Katsumi Nakamura, who had already begun to work. There was no clear evidence of any parent-child relationship, but they concluded he was their son, Yasunori, because he his appearance was similar to that of their other children. The Chugoku Shimbun published on October 13, the following day, reported on the reunion with the headline, “Fate torn asunder by A-bombing.”

Yasunori said in response, “I didn’t know what to say because it happened so suddenly,” as reported in the same article. He always thought his parents had died in the bombing. In 1957, as a representative of bereaved families, he had attended the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Ceremony held in Peace Memorial Park. “Father, mother, I have grown this much. May you rest in peace,” he said as he offered a wreath of flowers at the Cenotaph for A-bomb Victims.

No memory of brother

Shortly after that, Fumiko was reunited with her brother for the first time in 15 years. As she was one year of age at the time of the bombing, she had no memory of him at all and wondered if he was really her brother. Recalling that moment, she revealed that she questioned whether he was her brother at a level of “around one percent.” When he came to visit her at the barber shop where she was undergoing training, she washed his hair. “When I asked him, ‘Are you glad you’ve found you have a younger sister?’ he replied, ‘Yes, I’m happy about that.’” However, she also became aware of his confusion.

Meanwhile, Ms. Segawa’s father later wrote another personal account included in the collection titled Genshi Bakudan Hiroshima no Sugata (in English, ‘Atomic bomb: Image of Hiroshima, published by the Futaba Community Center in 1989), showing empathy for Yasunori’s mixed feelings after they had reunited. Reflecting on his experience, he added in the account, “Our belief he was our son had already taken root with nothing left to be done about it.”

Yasunori started using his actual name and lived with his parents for more than a year, following which he moved into his company’s dormitory. Thereafter, he would visit his parents on occasions like the New Year’s holidays. He would later marry and raise two daughters.

Takako Segawa, 52, Yasunori’s second daughter who now lives in Hofu City, said, “My father’s first priority was our family.” He would often take them on trips and to games played by the Hiroshima Toyo Carp, the local professional baseball team. In 1992, at the age of 50, he died of cancer. Takako said, “My dad passed away after saying to my grandparents, who had come to the hospital to see him, ‘Mom and dad, thank you so much.’”

(Originally published on April 7, 2025)