At the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum, you will see the belongings of three junior high students, first and second-year students of a Municipal Junior High School who were exposed to the bomb when they were engaged in building demolition. Most of them were killed. These clothes belonged to three of the victims.
The cap and belt was donated by Tsuda Kurakichi and belonged to a first-year student named Tsuda Eiichi, who was 13. Shortly before noon on the folowing day of the atomic bombing, his father found his body near Temma Bridge.
The school uniform belonged to a second-year student named Fukuoka Hajime who was 14. His mother received notices from several locations to come and receive his remains. She went to each place, but this uniform, later delivered by the father of one of his classmates, is the only certain item of his belongings. This was donated by Fukuoka Shigeharu.
The Gaiters belonged to a first-year student Ueda Masayuki who was 12. After the bombing, he fled to neighboring Fukushima-cho. He was luckily found and helped by one of his neighbors, but died in the afternoon of August 8th, two days after the bombing. This was donated by Ueda Masayuki.
This jacket was donated by Takemoto Fumiichi and belonged to nine-year-old Takemoto Hiroshi, a 3rd grade student at Nobori-cho Elementary School. Hiroshi was on the 2nd floor waiting room of a Shiatsu massage clinic in front of the Inari-machi streetcar stop when the bomb went off. He was directly exposed to the heat rays and suffered severe burns on his face and both his hands and legs. He died on August 27th.
The undershirt was donated by Obara Taiji. Obara who was 61 at the time was exposed to the bombing at Yokobori-cho, 900 meters from the hypocenter and was trapped under a collapsed house. About a week after the bombing, Tomjiro became unable to leave his bed, he died on September 1st at his place of refuge in Mitaki. The undershirt was wrong from the time of the bombing until his death.
The dress was donated by Terao Hiroshi. Terao Nobue who was 24 was exposed to the bombing at home. Although she was trapped under a collapsed building, she was able to crawl out and make it to an evacuation site. She was badly burned and her body was pierced by countless shards of glasses. Her parents and other family members tried desperately to save her but she died on August 18th.
The following older brother’s shirt, trousers and underwear were donated by Gendo Yoshihiro.
His older brother Gendo Yoshiaki, who was 12 at the time, was a first-year student at Second Hiroshima Prefectural Junior High School and experienced the atomic bombing at his building demolition worksite during roll call before starting work. A man who had come from Ono, in the suburbs of Hiroshima City, to look for his son put Yoshiaki on the back of his bicycle and took him home. However, despite the desperate care of his mother Masumi (32), he bore through the pain and took his last breath at around 11:00 am in the morning of August 7 th. Yoshiaki was wearing these clothese when the bomb was dropped.
The youngest brother of the family, Yoshihiro said, “My older brother had serious burns all over his body with his skin hanging down, and when he took his clothes off, my mother had to cut away the clothes that were stuck to his skin. While he was suffering, my brother apparently spoke about how he and his classmates fled the fires by jumping into the river and desperately clinging to a log and how he turned down an offer to take him to Ninoshima Island because he was so determined to get home. When our mother gamin him juice from some canned peaches, he said, “that was delicious” and those were his last words. When my mother was alive, she kept my brother’s clothes in the Buddhist alter, saying that she wanted them nearby as long as she was alive.
In tomorrow’s post, we will continue with the heartbreaking images from the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum.
