By Mitsuhisa Ogawa

Experience history by eating the lunch that was in the famous lunchbox before it was burned by the A-bomb. Hiroshima City child and maternal welfare Association, which manages the shop in the East Wing of the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum, Naka-ku, Hiroshima has reproduced and put on sale the lunch burned in the charred lunchbox left behind by a boy who was killed by the bomb. The lunchbox is one of the museum's best-known exhibits.

The owner of the original lunchbox was Shigeru Orimen (13), a student at Second Hiroshima Prefectural Junior High School (now, Kannon High School). He was helping to demolish buildings in Nakajima-shinmachi (now, Nakajima-cho, Naka-ku) when the bomb exploded over his head. His mother Shigeko (deceased) searched for him, but found his body wrapped around his charred lunchbox.

The Association has recreated the lunch Shigeko made based on her own description. Rice with barley and soybeans, potato and dried slices of daikon (radish) sauteed in oil are packed into a lunchbox labeled "Shigeru-chan's Lunch."

The lunch is manufactured by Chidori, a catering company in Nishi-ku; they have received orders for approximately 160 lunches since July 20.

Each lunch is 300 yen. Advance orders are required. Beginning at 8:30 a.m. on the 6th, 100 lunches will go on sale at the shop. To reserve one, call 082 (541) 0306.

(Caption)(above) Shigeru-chan's Lunch, a reproduction of the lunch that was charred by the atomic bomb (below) Shigeru Orimen's lunchbox charred by the A-bomb (courtesy Peace Memorial Museum)