The Restoration after the A-bomb

4. Restoration after the A-Bomb

4.1 Life in the Burnt-out City

About a month after the A-bomb was dropped, the temporary first-aid stations established in hospitals and schools around the city, gradually returned to normalcy. People who had escaped to the suburbs began to come back one by one to the city which had become a wide stretch of burnt-out ruins. They built shacks made of tin sheets dug out of the ruins and started life again. However, back in the city, they experienced a state of lethargy since there were no companies or factories to employ them, there was not enough food to eat, and they were worried about developing A-bomb related diseases. At that time, a typhoon hit the city. It raged from the middle of the night on September 17 to the next morning. The burnt city was completely submerged and the air-raid shelters and shacks in which the A-bomb survivors lived were destroyed. The people were hard hit, losing their place to sleep and what little belongings they had. Quite a few of them gave up living in the city and went back to the countryside again.

After the typhoon had passed, autumn suddenly arrived. Beautiful weather continued for some time and green weeds started to grow here and there in the burnt city. The plants were horseweed, which grew as tall as an adult person. Using the horseweed as a main ingredient, dumplings were made and sold in Eba and other areas which had remained unburnt. People who could go no longer on an empty stomach ate them to relieve their hunger, though they were unappetizing.

According to foreign news dispatches, Hiroshima, contaminated by radioactivity, would be barren for the next 70 years and no one would be able to live there. However, finding green weeds starting to grow again, hibakusha (A-bomb survivors) were given new hope for life.

Around the middle of September, elementary school children who had been evacuated returned to the city and schools were reopened in the burnt-out shells of ferroconcrete buildings. However, many classes had to be held outside and there were no teaching materials. Moreover the children could not concentrate on their studies because of their empty stomachs. Among those children who had returned were some who had lost their homes, parents, and brothers and sisters. Some of them were eventually either put in the custody of relatives living at a distance or adopted.

Around that time, black-market stalls were opened by discharged soldiers and people from other areas along the streets where people gathered in front of Hiroshima Station, and were doing a good business. However, many hibakusha could not afford to buy goods there. They planted vegetable gardens around their shacks after clearing away the rubble. Seedlings and seeds were either supplied by the city office or donated by acquaintances living in the countryside.

Winter in the burnt-out city was the severest one in many years. In this freezing cold weather, hibakusha made fires with the unburnt pieces of wood they had raked up. With this scanty heat they warmed themselves and managed to survive.

4.2 Out of the Ashes

The reconstruction of Hiroshima began with relief activities, mainly by the army (the Akatsuki Unit), immediately after the bombing. They removed the countless dead bodies in the first four or five days, cleared the principal roads for truck traffic, and of course helped to house and treat the wounded. Since the war was still going on, it was urgent to restore the functions of the important military bases. Emergency measures were taken to restore communications, electricity, and transportation.

When the army, which had been the main force in the reconstruction work, was disbanded at the end of the war, the work slowed. The city government, almost totally destroyed by the bombing, was not capable of taking over the reconstruction work and was forced to depend heavily on aid from other areas of Hiroshima Prefecture and neighboring prefectures. Through the relief work of these groups, Hiroshima City gradually began to grope its way back to life.

4.3 Image of the Future City

On February 22 1946, Governor Kusunose invited a number of leaders to the prefectural office for a round-table discussion on the reconstruction and future of Hiroshima. The following is a summary of the statements of each person present.

Governor Kusunose
l prefer the word reconstruction to restoration. There are two aspects of reconstruction. One is short-term reconstruction, such as reparing streetcar lines, building bridges and temporary houses as quickly as possible. The other is long-term reconstruction, which can not be carried out soon because of the present shortage of building materials. We need to work on it step by step. How about collecting drawings of reconstruction plans for Hiroshima from people all over the world?
Yoshiro Saeki (religious historian)
I'm opposed to the idea of building Hiroshima as a large city. A smallscale carefully planned Hiroshima is better. The present state of metropolitan Tokyo is a result of the failure of party politics. Such a situation should be avoided. I think that we should allow Hiroshima to grow larger in a natural way.
Yoko Ota (novelist)
The banks of the rivers of Hiroshima should become green areas and parks. Constructing apartments on the outskirts of the city is an urgent need in order to provide living facilities for the A-bomb victims who are now compelled to live in shacks. Many trees should be planted in the city. I would like to interweave dream and reality in harmony and enrich the citizens' lives.
Tomiko Koura (deputy mayor of Kure City)
I want to keep the vast expanse of the burnt-out area intact as a memorial graveyard for the sake of everlasting world peace. I have doubts about building a city on the place where countless numbers of people have died. It is not necessary to build the new Hiroshima on its old site. I think that we should search for a new place in the suburbs and construct the new Hiroshima there.
Hikojiro Oshio (director of the broadcasting department of NHK Hiroshima Central Broadcasting Station)
Presently I feel strongly that we need to improve the level of culture. I would like to see a library constructed soon even if it is just a shack. Also movie theaters and playhouses should be built as soon as possible to meet the needs of citizens who are hungry for culture.
Mr. Hayashi (assistant abbot of the Hiroshima Betsuin Temple)
The delay in reconstruction is the result of the lack of a comprehensive city plan. The routes of the main roads at least should be decided at once. Temples should be scattered one in each community instead of clustering them in one area as they were before the war. Then they could be utilized by the local people for various activities, serving as community auditoriums.
Yoshiro Fukui (artist)
I would like to see wide roads constructed and greenbelts built along the riversides. I want to see Hiroshima become a modern city displaying the highest quality of Japanese creative culture. The outline of the opinions expressed above shows much enthusiasm among the people for the reconstruction of Hiroshima as a peaceful modern city full of green vegetation. However, at that time, these ideas were considered dreams.

In the summer of 1946, in the outskirts of the burnt-out area, Danbara and Niho in the east, Ujina and Eba in the south, Koi, Kogo and Kusatsu in the west, Misasa-hon-machi 4-chome and Oshiba in the north, the population increased rapidly from an influx of people who had fled the city at the time of the bombing, demobilized soldiers, and repatriated people from China and Korea. Though various shops and recreational facilities in temporary wooden buildings started to appear, the completely burnt-out areas remained empty except for a few places, such as the areas in front of Hiroshima Station, Matoba-cho, Yokogawa and Koi, where black markets were thriving. The nearer one approaved the hypocenter, the more vacant lot remained where horseweeds grew thickly.

Part 5. Peace Memorial City Hiroshima

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