With this latest post, I’m going to end “The Heartbreaking Photos” segment with this blog post as there is a lot of sad situations and there is only so much I can cover, because it’s very sad.
The latest features Mikiyo, a girl who kept a diary for about four months from April 1945 when she entered school until August 5, the day before the bombing.
She entered school with high hopes, even during World War II and writing about her life.
Mikiyo was wroking on building demolition work when the bomb went off and she was scored throughout her body. She did all she could to reach Koi Elementary School and came across a friend of her eldest sister and asked the fried to take a message to her family.
Mikiyo returned home with her father Kazumi, who came to pick her up.
Despite being burned all over her body, she neither cried nor complained of the pain of the burns. Despite her family’s care, Mikiyo passed away on the morning of August 7th, the day after the bombing. After raising herself up and holding her palms to the east.
Her diary was donated by Matsuno Taeko.
The following dress was donated by Iijima Noriaki and Shunso, and their grandmother Shizu was exposed to the bombing on the second floor of her house. She was burned over most of her body and passed away around 1:30 in the following afternoon at a relief station. Her son Akira, then 21, was in the house with her but survived as he was in the downstairs bathroom.
The clothes are what Shizu was wearing that day and her son preserved them until he died.
The following blouse was worn by Shimizu Sumiko who was exposed to the bombing and was burned over her entire body. Despite being rescued and brought home, she lost consciousness the following day and died. Her father Hiroichi donated her blouse to the museum.
The tricycle was donated by Tetsutani Nobuo. Tetsutani Shinichi was close to his fourth birthday and loved riding his tricycle. The morning he was riding it in front of his house, the bomb burned Shinichi and his tricycle leading to his death.
His father buried Shinichi with his favorite tricycle in the back yard of their house.
In the summer of 1985, Nobuo dug up Shinichi’s remains 40 years later and transferred them to the family grave and donated the tricycle to the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum.
A metal lantern melted by the bomb blast and melted beyond recognition.
In tomorrow’s post, I will write about the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum shop.
