Living with Hiroshima

From the Meiji Era (1868-1912) on, Hiroshima bore an important role as a strategic position for the army. The central part of the city, including Hiroshima Castle, was a military base of the Imperial Army. My house was located near that area in Hakushima-kuken-cho.

During the war, volunteer work for the military was an obligation imposed on us. For example, the transportation means for the army senior officers in those days was horses, due partly to the scarcity of cars and partly to the gasoline shortage. Like food for people, feed for horses was also in short supply. So as volunteer service, school children visited house to house gathering used dried tea leaves or cut grass for horse feed. As soldiers rode around the city, there were lots of horse droppings on the roads. Children picked them up, gathered them at school, and then returned them to the Army. We heard that they were dried and used as fuel.

According to the news reports, the war was going in Japan’s favor. However, major cities throughout Japan were being destroyed by air raids. It was necessary to avoid non-combatants being victimized, so people were urged to evacuate to safer places. Those who had relatives or friends in rural areas moved out of urban cities. In the spring of 1945, schoolchildren’s evacuation was systematized. Third to sixth graders with no place to evacuate were taken in a group to rural temples, accompanied by teachers. I remained in the city for some family reasons. I had fewer and fewer old friends around me. There was a rumor spreading, “America wouldn’t bombard Hiroshima in fear of the strong army that is stationed there.” The senior Army officers’ families who had been affected by the bombardment in their hometowns were brought to the supposedly safer Hiroshima. Therefore, there were quite a few children still remaining in the city.

As the war turned critical, the Imperial Army gathered soldiers to Hiroshima from other places. The Army needed more facilities than available to accommodate them all. Part of our school buildings was given to the Army. Schoolchildren had classes in a small group at a temple nearby. Since education materials, notebooks, drawing papers, everything was in short supply, classes in those days were just practicing calligraphy on old newspapers, learning the myth of worshiping the Emperor or doing air-raid prevention drills. There were no summer holidays during the war. I later learned that this differed from place to place, but we had school in Hiroshima anyway. Perhaps, Hiroshima, as a military city, was special.