News

by Kyosuke Mizukawa, Senior Staff Writer

On August 6, 1955, Machi Soejima, a resident of Ashiya City, Hyogo Prefecture, who died in 2006 at the age of 93, visited Hiroshima City for the first time in 10 years. At the time, she was 42 years old and the mother of four sons and one daughter. She was involved in a local women’s group called the Ashiya Asunaro Tomo no Kai and was working on a drive to collect signatures for a ban on atomic and hydrogen bombs. She traveled to Hiroshima to participate in the World Conference against Atomic and Hydrogen bombs, which was being held in the city for the first time.

The Peace Memorial Ceremony was held the morning of the day the world conference began in Peace Memorial Park (in present-day Naka Ward), the location of the Hiroshima Municipal Auditorium, the conference’s main venue. In her book, Ano Hi kara Ima mo Nao (in English, ‘From that day and still now’), she wrote, “As I offered a silent prayer while listening to the sorrowful tolling of the peace bell, memories of the suffering from 10 years prior came back, filling me with deep emotion” (quotations hereunder taken from same publication).

Fled with her four children

On August 6, 1945, Ms. Soejima experienced the atomic bombing at her home in the area of Minamisenda-machi (in Hiroshima’s present-day Naka Ward), around 2.5 kilometers from the hypocenter. She fled with her four young children from their home, its roof and walls destroyed. Pregnant with her fourth son at the time, she gave birth 13 days later after returning to the home while in labor.

Her husband, a professor at Hiroshima Technical Institute (present-day Hiroshima University), had been drafted into military service and was discharged after the end of the war. In December 1945, Ms. Soejima moved from Hiroshima to Kyoto, where they had lived as newlyweds, while her husband remained behind. When he became a professor at the Kobe Technical Institute (present-day Kobe University) in 1948, they settled together in Ashiya City.

Even after leaving Hiroshima, Ms. Soejima continued to see photographs showing the city’s recovery. She wrote in her book, “I had thought that 10 years would have washed away all the agony and scars of the past.” Participating in the conference, however, made her realize the reality was different. “Suddenly, something appeared vividly before me. It was the suffering of the A-bomb survivors.”

A woman who had suffered burns in the atomic bombing from her shoulders to her arms continued to do the hard of raising her three children on her own. She confessed that she became easily tired at work after the bombing and that she was often scolded for being “lazy.” Other A-bomb survivors shared stories of their suffering and hardship at the conference, saying things like, “I haven’t slept on tatami in 10 years” and “I’d just as soon die.”

Ms. Soejima described how, “Everyone in the conference venue was crying together,” adding, “I listened in anguish, as if I myself were being blamed.” Upon returning to Ashiya City, she felt “a strong desire to help in some way” and soon initiated a “one-yen fundraising” campaign to support A-bomb victims and survivors. She asked carpenters to make more than 70 donation boxes and had acquaintances place the boxes in their homes. With guidance from her children, she learned how to ride a bicycle, using it to travel around Kobe City and Nishinomiya City, located in the same Hyogo Prefecture, to collect donations.

Takako Chiba, 83, Ms. Soejima’s oldest daughter who lives in Ashiya City, said, “My family experienced that atomic bombing, but all of us were able to live ordinary lives. My mother, who despised bullying of the less fortunate, was deeply committed to helping A-bomb survivors.”

Donations continued to pour in, and Ms. Chiba, a junior high school student at the time, helped by wrapping sets of 50 one-yen coins in paper for easier handling. However, there was a tendency at the time of suspecting people involved in the peace movement of being communists, with a plainclothes police officer once tailing Ms. Soejima to her home. Ms. Chiba recalled, “I heard that my mother had even tried to get the officer to make a donation.”

Donations exceeded 20,000 yen

By the next year, 1956, the donations had exceeded 20,000 yen. In her book Ano Hi kara Ima mo Nao, Ms. Soejima wrote, “A large amount of money is unquestionably important, but what matters even more is the sentiment by which people donate one-yen coins each time they remember the unfortunate people of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.”

When her activities were reported in a local newspaper, A-bomb survivors in Hyogo Prefecture wrote letters identifying themselves one after another. In November 1956, the Atomic Bomb Survivors Association in Hyogo Prefecture was established, and Ms. Soejima was appointed to serve as its president. The group continued its fundraising efforts for more than 30 years, using donations to provide get-well gifts and financial support for daily living.

(Originally published on March 17, 2025)