The War Orphans of Hiroshima: Part II

by Sarah Terzo

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This is part II of a series. You can read part I here.

On August 6, 1945, the United States became the first and, so far, only country to use nuclear weapons in wartime when our leaders dropped the atomic bomb on a civilian target, the city of Hiroshima. US assessments shortly after the bombing estimated that over 60,000 people were killed in Hiroshima. A later assessment estimated roughly 140,000 people died by the end of 1945 because of the bombing.  

While the bombing killed some soldiers, the victims also included huge numbers of  women, children, and older people. The bomb also made many children orphans. This article tells the story of a few of the orphans of Hiroshima.  

The stories are from Arata Osada’s collection, Children of Hiroshima, published in Japan in 1951 and later translated into English.

Yukio’s Story

Yukio Sekimoto was only five years old when the Americans dropped the bomb. He was living in Hiroshima with his family. He and his older sister were home alone when it happened.

He said, “I was playing outdoors when I saw a sudden flash. Fire broke out everywhere. Our house and gate burned down before I knew it.”

Yukio and his sister ran from the flames. They ended up taking refuge under a bridge. They spent the night surrounded by dead and dying people, most of whom had horrible burns.

The next morning, the children were hungry. Yukio’s sister was able to get a few boiled rice balls from an emergency relief squad, and that was all the children had to eat.

The two children wandered through the ruined city and finally met their parents. Both had been burned severely. Yukio’s father, in particular, was badly injured. Yukio said, “Mummy had burns on her hands and feet. Daddy looked as if he would die at any moment … I started to cry.”

Hospitals were overrun with tens of thousands of injured people. There was no medical care available for Yukio’s parents. The two children did the best they could to help them.

Yukio said, “We did our best to take care of [father]… When I brought a glass of water for him to drink, he seemed to get better.”

The family moved in with relatives whose home was also badly damaged. Over the course of a few days, while Yukio’s father fought for his life, they built a small shack for the children and their parents to stay in.

Despite the horrible things he had seen and the surrounding wreckage, Yukio went outside to play. When he came back, he was told that his father had died. They carried him in a coffin to the crematorium, and the next day, brought back some of his bones and buried them in the cemetery.

There were so many dead and so few people to tend to the bodies that Yukio’s relatives had to dig the grave themselves.

A few days later, Yukio’s mother died too. Yukio said, “My sister and I buried the bones of my mummy beside my daddy’s. We prayed kneeling in front of their grave and cried to ourselves.”

At only five, Yukio became an orphan.

Tokuo’s Story

Tokuo Nakashima was in first grade on August 6, 1945. That would have made him six or seven. He lived with his mother until the day of the bombing.

Tokuo experienced the atomic bomb firsthand:

I heard a big explosion and jumped out of bed to see what was going on. Everything was pitch dark. I sat down and started to think about what might have happened…[T]he roof tiles started coming down on my head. I jumped to my feet. The roof and the ceiling were both gone.

The bomb had set the city on fire, and flames were approaching.

A neighbor woman came along and told me I’d be burned to death if I didn’t get to a safe place right away… I went running off…

Then I realized that I had left Mother behind.

Tokuo went back to the house, only to find it had collapsed.

He called for his mother:

I thought Mother must be around somewhere, so I called her and there was no answer. I wondered where she might be.

”Have you seen my mother?” I asked a neighbor who came by.

“No, I haven’t,” she answered, and my heart sank.

A man, a stranger, walking past, urged Tokuo to flee. He told the child that if he stayed near the house, he would be burned to death. But Tokuo didn’t want to leave until he found his mother. He continued to search for her as the man tried to persuade him to come with him and escape the fire.

Finally, the man promised Tokuo that he would find his mother the next day. It was the only way he could convince the child to abandon the search and run away. Had Tokuo stayed, he would have died.

Tokuo and the man escaped the flames and got to a safe place. Tokuo described being surrounded by badly burned and injured people: “I could hear people crying for help all around. People with their faces burned so badly that no one would recognize them were crying for water.”

The city burned all night while the frightened child tried to sleep, surrounded by strangers with badly burned faces.

The next day, he wandered through the wreckage of Hiroshima looking for his mother. There were dead and dying people everywhere, and he looked at their faces:

At Funairihon-machi, there were many people lying on the ground. Some were dead and others were dying. I looked into their faces one after another, thinking that one of them might be my mother but she wasn’t there. I walked along the road… There were many dead bodies lying about but none of them was my mother.

Imagine the horrors this child witnessed at only six or seven.

Tokuo finally gave up the search. He said, “I sat down on the riverbank and cried as I waited and waited, but Mother never came. Dead bodies were floating by in the river.”

He never saw his mother again. Presumably, she was crushed under the house and killed outright or burned to death in the fire while trapped.

Toshio’s Story

Toshio Nakamori lost both his parents to the atomic bomb. He was six years old. When Osada spoke to him, he was in sixth grade. In his interview, he described what it was like to be an orphan:

When I go downtown, I often see little children walking along the street holding their father’s or mother’s hand. They look so happy, and this always reminds me of my own parents. My father and mother were very kind and loved me very much…

Sometimes I whispered “Mummy” or “Daddy.” But they don’t answer. I feel sad and envy my friends who have parents.

I try to accept it and I try not to miss my parents who have gone to heaven… I hate war. I hate fighting!

Kikuko’s Story

Kikuko Yamashiro was only five on the day Hiroshima was bombed. She and her older brother were playing upstairs in their house when, “There was a blinding flash and our house fell down. Everything was a mess. My big sister got out first and helped everyone out.”

Kikuko's mother was badly hurt. The family needed to escape the approaching fire, but Kikuko’s mother was too badly injured to run or walk. The children found a cart, helped their mother into it, and pulled her behind them as they fled.

We ran away as fast as we could. Many other people were also running away. Some of them were injured. There were so many people rushing along… I was thirsty but there was no water to drink.

That night, they took shelter in a tin-roofed shack that was still standing.

Kikuko said:

The next morning, my brothers woke me up and said, “Mother is dead.”

“No,” I cried and ran to her. I called to her but there was no answer. I kept calling, but still she said nothing. All I could do was cry.

After their mother’s cremation, the children stayed in a hospital. One morning, Kikuko found out that her older brother had died. Then “One after another, all my family died except for two brothers and myself.”

Kikuko’s older sister, who rescued Kikuko and her family from the collapsed house, died as well.

Kikuko and her brothers were separated and sent to different places to live. For a long time, she didn’t know where her brothers were, and she missed them. Eleven years old at the time of her interview with Osada, she was sad that her older brother seldom visited her and missed the rest of her family.

Was the Bombing Needed to End War With Japan?  

Right after the US military dropped the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and for many years following, American politicians and others told the public that the bombing had been necessary to end the war and avoid an invasion of Japan that would have cost many American lives. But now we know that may not have been the case.

Shortly before the bombing, the leaders of Japan had reached out to the Soviet Union to ask them to broker a truce with the Americans. They wanted to end the war. However, Japan’s leaders wanted certain conditions before surrendering. The main one was a guarantee of safety for Emperor Hirohito that also allowed him to retain some political power. Emperor Hirohito was a religious figure, revered by the Japanese.

Had President Truman been willing to concede to this condition, instead of insisting on an unconditional surrender, or had he pursued peace talks with the Japanese, the war with Japan might have ended without the need to use the bomb.