(60)Is it true that, even on August 6, the Hiroshima's water supply was still flowing?

Repairs performed by injured workers

It's hard to believe, but when I visited Hiroshima City Waterworks Bureau, they told me that, indeed, the city's water has never stopped flowing.

According to a book about the history of Hiroshima's water supply which was published in 1998, Hiromu Nakamoto, who was chair of the city assembly at the time, shared his congratulations over the fact that this service has been maintained, without break, since it was started. Toshihide Yamaoka, then director of the Waterworks Bureau, commented, "Our city's water supply, essential for the lives of our citizens, has been in service without a single day's interruption."

The main building of the Waterworks Bureau was totally destroyed and the steel frame was twisted. The water purification plant in Ushita is located 2 kilometers north of this spot. (Photo taken by Shigeo Hayashi, October 1945)

What happened to the workers of the Waterworks Bureau on the day the atomic bomb was dropped?

The main building of the Waterworks Bureau was located in the city center, 500 meters east of the hypocenter. It was totally destroyed and all 20 workers on duty were killed. However, at the water purification plant in Ushita, about 2.5 kilometers from the hypocenter, the workers struggled to maintain the flow of water.

A book compiled by the City of Hiroshima, a collection of people's accounts of the bombing, includes the stories of two people who were working for the Waterworks Bureau that day. Kumekichi Nishimoto and Kuro Horino, both 51 years old at the time, were on duty at the Ushita water purification plant.

Working through injury

The plant had three shifts and Mr. Nishimoto had begun working at 7:00 that morning. He described the situation at the plant after the blast: "Fire broke out in the pump room and there was a large hole in the roof there. We moved to close the three pump valves to anticipate the backward flow of water in the reservoirs. When I climbed up to check the reservoirs, the water was flowing out quickly. If that had continued, we would have lost all our water so we had to get the valves closed." Despite hurting his back in the blast, Mr. Nishimoto worked on.

Mr. Horino wasn't on duty that day, but he hurried to the purification plant in spite of the burns he received while near Hiroshima train station. According to the Waterworks Bureau, three spare pumps were put into operation that day and, as a result, 40% of a typical day's water supply was maintained. By the evening, water in the reservoirs from higher elevations flowed down naturally to the lower city center, so the water supply experienced no interruption.

The city of Hiroshima, of course, was devastated by the blast. There were broken water pipes everywhere. Even with the purification plant still providing water, there were few working faucets left. Still, the surviving workers worked on to keep the facility operating, such as driving wooden plugs into holes in pipes in order to maintain the water pressure. Repair work on the city's water supply continued until April of the following year.

Hiroshima's water supply, incidentally, was the fifth water supply completed in Japan. The city with the first water supply was Yokohama, a project completed in 1887. The cities of Hakodate, Nagasaki and Osaka were next, followed by Hiroshima in August 1898.

A water supply for more than 110 years

The city of Hiroshima rests on a delta and the water contains salt, making it unsuitable for drinking. Until the middle of the Meiji era, contagious diseases, such as cholera, often turned into epidemics, so the establishment of a safe water supply became vital for public health. Because Hiroshima was designated an important military base during the Sino-Japanese War (1894-95), the city's first water supply was constructed for military purposes. The system was then expanded to benefit the general population, too.

The city of Hiroshima has been able to supply water for over 100 years without interruption. One factor that may be involved is the effort of the employees on behalf of the many citizens of Hiroshima who died seeking water on the day the atomic bomb was dropped. (Kenji Nanba, staff writer)