Toshiharu Kodama :

"The Lunchbox"

Shigeru was a student at Hiroshima Prefecture Second Middle School. On August 6, as usual in those days, he took his lunchbox and went to work as a mobilized student, helping to dismantle buildings to create a fire lane. After the atomic bombing, his mother, Shigeko, was searching through the rubble of the city in search of Shigeru. She found some remains that she believed to be her son and discovered his burnt lunchbox, the contents inside charred black, underneath his remains. A book about Shigeru and his lunchbox was published in August 1989. In 1990, an animated film based on the story was produced. Then, in 1995, the story was turned into a picture book and it was selected for inclusion on a list of recommended books for children by the School Library Association and the Japan Association for the Study of Children's Literature. It also won a picture book award in 1996 from the Picture Book Library in Kenbuchi, Hokkaido.

Many children have been moved
Books can change the world

Tatsuharu Kodama

Born in Otake City, Hiroshima prefecture in 1928. He was a student at Iwakuni Technical School, then graduated from the faculty of engineering at Kanagawa University in 1952. He worked as a teacher at junior high schools in Otake and Hiroshima. He retired in 1988. His book "A Boy's Marbles" (1990) was on the 1990 list of recommended books for children by the Japan Association for the Study of Children's Literature, and "Shin's Tricycle" (1992) was selected as a recommended book for children for the summer vacation of 1993 by the Japan Library Association and School Library Association.

The lunchbox which belonged to Shigeru Orimen, a first-year student at Hiroshima Prefecture Second Middle School (today, Kannon High School), can now be seen at Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum. On the morning of August 6, he took along his lunchbox to the work site where he was helping to dismantle buildings. He died there in the blast of the atomic bomb. The book titled "The Lunchbox," written by Toshiharu Kodama, is based on the story he heard from Shigeru's mother, Shigeko. "I've heard that some students stare at their lunchboxes after reading the book. Many children have been moved by the story," said Mr. Kodama, pleased with the book's impact.

He became aware of the story of Shigeru and his lunchbox while working as a teacher at Sanwa Junior High School, his last school before he retired. This was in the mid-1980s. A girl in Mr. Kodama's school who lived near Shigeko had heard the story from her and his students turned the story into a play. Mr. Kodama then began visiting Shigeko's house to speak with her about her son. Recalling those days, he said, "At first, she told me she didn't want to talk about it, but eventually she started looking forward to my visits." He smiled at the memory.

Shigeko's house is quite close to the junior high school. She showed Mr. Kodama a letter that Shigeru had written and took him to a field where she planted hydrangea after scattering his ashes there. "She told me the whole story very frankly," he said. He then conceived the idea of handing down Shigeru's story by writing a book.

He first wrote the story and titled it "Well Water." When he contributed it to a publication produced by the literature circle he belonged to, other members responded with such criticism as "your voice didn't come through" and "the narrative and your commentary were jumbled together." Still, Mr. Kodama managed to publish it in book form. "What pleased me most was the fact that Shigeko was happy about it," he recalled.

Mr. Kodama has published more than ten books, including some books at his own expense. In his teaching career, though, he taught mathematics. "Because I was a math teacher, I didn't know how to write stories," he said. When he was a university student, studying engineering, he recalls being given a novel by another student who lived in the same lodging and he became engrossed in literature. "Books can change the world," he thought.

He wrote about his life during the war in the form of a novel and distributed handouts to students every week at Sanwa Junior High School. "Both the children, and their mothers, enjoyed reading them," he said.

The story of "The Lunchbox" subsequently became an animated film and a picture book for children. Like the other films based on his books "A Boy's Marbles" and "Shin's Tricycle," the film of the "The Lunchbox" conveys the cruelty and the horror of the atomic bomb. Mr. Kodama says that he isn't concerned only with the atomic bomb in his work, but he adds, "Teachers today don't have an experience of war, so books can play an important role in getting across the reality of war to children."

Mr. Kodama has written 90 pages of his autobiography and offered them to his students to read. He is planning to publish them as a book. (Rie Nii, Staff Writer)