by Paul Ham
Home
I visited our relatives on an errand and returned home at 5pm. On arriving, I felt calm and relaxed for the first time today. I ate dinner, prepared the things that I will need from tomorrow and went to bed.
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Woke up: 5am Went to bed: 9pm Study: none Chores: washed up after dinner
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7 April (Sat) Weather: cloudy
School
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Today the new students met the senior students. The senior students were so inspiring, and I have decided that I am going to do my very best in everything so that I don’t damage the Kenjo school spirit. Otsuka Sensei, who has taught the senior students since 1943, retired today. I do not know what kind of a teacher he was because he never taught me, but I joined in and gave him a hearty send-off anyway.
Home
Today was the first day of school. In the morning, I sprang out of bed, bursting with energy. If Father were here, he would have been overjoyed! I must to do my best for him, as well. Father, please be happy today, because I was made deputy class captain of Class 6!
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Woke up: 5.30am Went to bed: 9pm Study: 30 minutes Chores: prepared dinner
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School Pride
Yoko’s school was called the First Hiroshima Prefectural Girls’ High School, or Daiichikenjo (‘Kenjo’). It stood in lush green grounds near Dobashi, about 700 metres west of the city centre, which was the target for the atomic bomb. As one of the city’s oldest and most prestigious schools, First Hiroshima was very hard to get into: Yoko had to sit a difficult test and all the students were carefully selected. It was a bit like our selective high schools.
In his contribution to the Japanese edition of this book, Masafumi Yamazaki, a teacher at Kenjo, wrote: ‘Its ethos was teaching girls to become good wives and wise mothers who possessed great fortitude and perseverance and were frugal and steadfast. In spite of the strict educational policies it maintained, the school also focused on sports, music and extracurricular activities, besides the pursuit of knowledge, and it produced valuable, contributing members of society.’
Yoko performed well and was delighted to be named a Kenjo student, and therefore be considered a clever or wise girl. Certainly she was very obedient and always seemed to be striving to improve herself, to meet the standards she thought her parents and teachers had set for her. Unsurprisingly she became deputy class captain.
– Paul Ham
8 April (Sun) Weather: rain then cloudy
School
Today was an Imperial Rescript Proclamation Day and home training day.
Home
I woke up later than usual this morning because my legs were tired from 5 April, when I walked all the way home from Yoshiwa, which is about 23.5 kilometres inland. My old national [primary] school teacher, Yoshikawa Sensei, has been transferred to an external position, so I gave him a farewell present. Yoshikawa Sensei was a very kind, interesting teacher who was good at drawing. Farewell, Yoshikawa Sensei.
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Woke up: 7am Went to bed: 9pm Study: 1 hour Chores: prepared dinner
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Getting Around
As Japan’s losses mounted and Allied aircraft struck deep into the homeland, the basic services of Japanese society collapsed. Telephone services were severely disrupted, and often areas of the city and surrounding villages relied on a single communal phone. Train services between towns were very infrequent. But inside Hiroshima, the people prided themselves on their excellent inner-city tram service, which continued through the worst of the war – and resumed just days after the atomic bomb fell.
Nevertheless, Yoko found herself having to walk long distances to and from her home, as did many other Japanese children who had to make their way to schools or factories, farms or demolition sites. Yoko often mentions walks of more than 20 kilometres. That’s like walking Sydney’s City to Surf race twice a day.
Her fellow student Kazuko Fujita mentions in her ‘Memories of that time’ how she and Yoko and Yoko’s classmate Shizuko Oka caught a ferry, a train and then walked for forty minutes to get from Miyajima to school.
– Paul Ham
9 April (Mon) Weather: rain then cloudy
School
While we were in the gymnasium today, we were told what to do when we hear a warning siren. At the sound of a siren we must go straight home. Area groups were also announced for people who cannot return home because they live too far away. Before we were sent away, our names, addresses and telephone numbers were taken down so that our families can be contacted at such times.
Home
Yesterday was Sunday so I wasn’t really in the mood for working; but I pulled myself together straight away when I got to school and saw the headmaster and the teachers.
Next week I will be more careful.
This evening I wrote to Father and told him that I had been made deputy class captain. He will be so happy when he gets the letter.
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Woke up: 5am Went to bed: 9pm Study: 30 minutes Chores: prepared dinner
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Letters to the Soldiers
Yoko wrote several letters to her father, but none of them reached him. His whereabouts were unknown – the family believed only that he was fighting somewhere in the Pacific. Japanese children did occasionally receive letters from their fathers or brothers serving abroad, but these were heavily censored by army officials. Any mention of their suffering or location was cut out. To reveal a soldier’s location to his family was considered a security risk.
Only good news was allowed to be written in letters sent home. So the families were being told that the Japanese soldiers, sailors and airman were doing well in the war and victory was theirs – when in fact they were on the verge of complete defeat.
– Paul Ham
10 April (Tue) Weather: rain
School
Today was the first day of actual classes. In our first and second lesson hours we learned sewing. In the third hour we studied national literature. In the fourth hour we did drawing. In the fifth hour we studied etiquette.
I was surprised to find that these subjects are taught in a completely different way from how they were taught at national school. I must make sure I do a good job in these classes.
Home
Today was a gloomy, rainy day.
When I got home from school, one of my relatives, Aki, had come to see us. Aki is a fourth grade student at Fukuromachi National School, and is going to be evacuated to Futami District. I feel sorry for her having to live so far away from her parents. But it will all be worth it when we win the war. Aki, don’t lose heart!!
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Woke up: 5am Went to bed: 10pm Study: 1 hour Chores: prepared dinner
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Evacuees
To escape the danger of the firebombing that was occurring all over Japan, children between the ages of four and twelve were evacuated from the cities to the countryside.
In 1945 about 23,500 Hiroshiman children were evacuated. One was a little boy called Shoso Kawamoto. His experience was typical. While his parents and most of his family stayed in Hiroshima to work, Shoso travelled by train with hundreds of other classmates to a village about 50 kilometres away. When he arrived, he and his friends slept on straw tatami mats on the floor of a local Buddhist temple. They got a bowl of rice for breakfast and a bowl of rice for dinner. There were no lights at night. The youngest children were terrified of their strange new surroundings and the long dark nights, and they wet their beds and cried, for which they were bullied by the older kids.
The older kids soon abandoned their classes to join the local boys in gathering wood, digging for pine roots and stealing food. In time, these evacuated children formed gangs, made slingshots and went hunting in the forests. Once a month their parents visited. ‘We would spend just a few minutes together,’ Shoso remembered, years later. His parents always left with a prayer that he would return safely to Hiro
shima. Shoso survived the war in his village, but his parents in Hiroshima died in the bombing.
– Paul Ham
11 April (Wed) Weather: rain then fine
School
Today we learned a subject called household management for the first time. It is very interesting and I like it a lot.
I heard that the father of Hamada-san, one of the girls in our class, passed away. I feel so sorry for her. Next time she comes to school I am going to go right over and comfort her.
Home
I am going to do my homework now, which is to make a table of my daily chores. Hmm, I wonder what kind of a table I will make …
Today I borrowed some books from Ishikawa-san, who is a student at Shintoku Girls’ School. I am so excited! Now that I have books, I am going to work really hard.
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Woke up: 5am Went to bed: 10pm Study: 1 hour Chores: prepared dinner
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Year 7 Timetable. (Kohji Hosokawa)
12 April (Thu) Weather: fine
School
Today we did warning-siren evacuation drills in our first lesson hour. The first time it took six minutes for us to evacuate, but the second time it took only four. When you evacuate, the most important thing is to be swift and silent.
In the afternoon, I was playing in the school yard when the warning siren sounded again, so I came straight home.
Home
The warning siren sounded, so I visited our relatives and waited at their home until it went off. Then I returned home with Mother on the 5.47pm ferry. When we got there, my uncle had come to see us.
I prepared my things for tomorrow and went to bed.
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Woke up: 5am Went to bed: 10pm Study: 1 hour Chores: prepared dinner
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Warning Sirens
An air-raid warning siren sounded whenever an American aircraft was spotted flying over the city. The Japanese people nicknamed the B-29 bombers B-san, which literally means ‘Mr B’. The people would scurry to bomb shelters – often just holes in the floors of their homes, or shafts in the dirt – and hide from an expected attack. They would wait until a second siren sounded the ‘all clear’ and then emerge from the shelters and resume their work. But there were many false alarms. It usually just meant a single American bomber was overhead, which mysteriously flew around then left. Little did the Japanese realise that these planes were reconnaissance flights, sent months ahead of the mission to drop the atomic bomb.
Some planes were on training exercises and dropped dummy bombs called ‘pumpkins’ in the surrounding countryside. One plane at a time seemed harmless. Most Japanese cities had been attacked by waves of bombers – up to 150 at a time – and soon the people of Hiroshima ignored the sirens completely. Yoko herself heard the sirens on several occasions and hid in a bomb shelter with her fellow students. But one thing puzzled the people of Hiroshima: already American bombers had destroyed so many Japanese cities. Why was their city being spared?
– Paul Ham
13 April (Fri) Weather: fine
School
I saw one of those blasted B-29s for the first time today. It circled Hiroshima, trailing a long, beautiful contrail, and then flew away. The warning siren sounded again today, so I was back home again by lunchtime.
Home
Everyone is buzzing with the news of seeing the scary B-29. When I got home, I had lunch and went to Tamada Sensei’s house. Tamada Sensei is a teacher at Miyajima National School. Tomorrow, he will join the Kure City Marine Corps [the naval corps that trained conscripted and volunteer soldiers]. He is probably worried about his family. So that Father won’t worry, I am going to help Mother and do my best every day.
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Woke up: 5am Went to bed: 11.30pm Study: 1 hour Chores: helped to prepare meals and ran an errand
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14 April (Sat) Weather: fine
School
Today we did labouring work in our first and second lesson hours. Demolition work on the gymnasium has started, so we carried the scrap wood to the back garden.
Mizuiri Sensei, our homeroom teacher, returned from Hiroshima today.
Home
Today Tamada Sensei finally left to go and fight in the war. He seemed to be in a very good mood. When I asked Shoji, who is still very small, ‘Where is your daddy?’ he replied proudly, ‘Daddy went away in a train. He is a soldier, you know.’ I feel sorry for him being so far away from his daddy when he is so small.
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Woke up: 5am Went to bed: 9pm Study: 1 hour Chores: prepared meals
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Child Labour
In April 1945 Yoko and her friends heard from their teachers that children aged twelve and older would have to join the war effort as student labour. This was because the National Mobilisation Law – compelling all adults to work in war industries – was extended to children.
Until they were assigned duties in factories, offices, munitions works, or labouring, students worked in the school agricultural plots or on whatever jobs came up around the school. Yoko mentions cleaning kitchens and removing rubble, and her school friend Kazuko Fujita recalls digging bomb shelters and filling them with rocks from the Ota River.
– Paul Ham
15 April (Sun) Weather: fine
School
Today at school we laboured until lunchtime. In the afternoon, we studied. The headmaster talked to us about posture and breathing.
There was also an orientation for new students. The sun was beating down and it was terribly hot, but we put up with the heat and got through it.
Home
A lot of rations arrived today – matches, shellfish and vegetables. Because it was my family’s turn to distribute the rations, I helped too. My legs were a little tired from all that walking, but I finished everything I had to do quickly and then went to bed.
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Woke up: 5am Went to bed: 9pm Study: 1 hour Chores: helped distribute rations
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Rationing
Japan was running out of everything, not just food. Families had to donate metal in their homes to arms factories to be turned into bullets and parts for aircraft. There was little coal or oil, so their homes had to rely on wood fires. Children took one bath a week in freezing water, because they hadn’t the fuel to heat the baths. The government insisted on very strict food rationing: food was limited to rice and potatoes, and it had to go a long way. Anyone showing off their money was frowned upon. Women who wore brightly coloured kimonos were mocked.
Many child labourers got sick or collapsed from exhaustion. Even though she rarely complains about shortages, Yoko did suffer from extreme tiredness and dizziness, possibly due to overwork and a lack of food.
Families tried to help each other and formed little neighbourhood groups which shared food and clothing and wood. Farmers were expected to send food to the cities. If you were lucky enough to know a farmer, you could hope for more food than other people. Luckily, Yoko’s grandparents were farmers.
Gradually people realised that the US naval blockade was slowly choking and starving the nation. American war ships surrounding the country sank any Japanese ships trying to bring supplies or reinforcements home.
– Paul Ham
16 April (Mon) Weather: fine
School
Today the warning siren sounded in playtime after our second lesson hour, so I came straight home.
Home
My whole body felt really weary and I also had a fever and a headache, so I went to bed early.
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Woke up: 5am Went to bed: 8pm Study: 30 minutes Chores: prepared meals
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17 April (Tue) Weather: fine
School
Today I had a slight headache and didn’t really enjoy eating the food in my bento box. My tonsils feel swollen.
The warning siren sounded during cleaning time, so I came straight home on the 4.02pm ferry.
Home
My headache got even worse after I got home, but I just put up with it. I went to bed early after reviewing the work we will do in tomorrow’s lessons and practising my calligraphy.
Makoto Mizuiri is my new homeroom teacher.
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Woke up: 5am Went to bed: 9pm Study: 30 minutes Chores: prepared meals
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18 April (Wed) Weather: fine
School
The warning siren sounded again today but it stopped almost straight away.
Kawakita Sensei scolded me in calligraphy class because I wasn’t meditating as I was rubbing down my ink stick on the ink stone. [Students meditated to calm their minds so their calligraphy would turn out well.] I will make sure I do a superb job in his next class.
Home
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Woke up: 5am Went to bed: 10pm Study: 30 minutes Chores: prepared meals
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The warning siren sounded so I visited our relatives, the Murakamis. I wasn’t able to let my teacher know, so I told the leader of the group I walk to school with, and she said I could go.