Pictures by Hiroshima children return to the city

Striving to live

"Girls jumping with elastic band" by Setsuko Shimatani

Setsuko Shimatani, 68, lives in Hatsukaichi City, and looked back on her childhood. "It wasn't sad," she said. "Everyone just did the best they could."

But the death of her elder sister, at the age of 13, in the aftermath of the atomic bombing was a very painful experience for her. Her sister was a first-year student at Hiroshima Jogakuin Junior High School and had been mobilized to help with the dismantling of buildings to create a fire lane. Her exposure to the blast led to her death on August 22. Setsuko was 3 years old at the time. She tried to give her sister a drink of goat's milk, but the milk spilled over her sister's face. She didn't know what to do, so she could only cry.

Setsuko Shimatani (right) looks at a photo album, reflecting on her days in elementary school (Photo by Shotaro Takada, 16)

In those days, her family ate mainly pickled vegetables and potatoes, while her grandfather brought them rice and vegetables that he grew. Setsuko's favorite food was salted cucumbers.

Her family also regularly received flour from relatives who lived in the United States. Setsuko's mother was good at baking pumpkin pies and cakes, and neighbors would stop by to enjoy them. Setsuko loved them, too.

In the picture she made when she was a first grader in elementary school, Setsuko drew girls jumping with an elastic band. She drew the picture with crayons sent from the United States. The girls in the picture are wearing skirts or dresses and shoes. In reality, though, she and her friends wore loose-fitting trousers called "monpe" and either had wooden sandals on their feet or went barefoot. "I drew a happy scene from before the war," she explained, eager to see her picture again. (Mako Sakamoto, 13)

Depicting an ideal scene

"Under a cherry blossom tree" by Toshimi Ishida

Toshimi Ishida, 69, is a resident of Enomachi, Hiroshima, about 500 meters from the Hypocenter. He told us, "I have no memory of my picture." A note attached to the picture, though, says that the picture was drawn when Mr. Ishida was 8. It features a field of cherry trees in bloom. In reality, though, the field was full of rubble, not cherry blossoms. "I probably drew my ideal landscape," he said.

Toshimi Ishida says: "Such cruelties as the atomic bombing should never be repeated." (Photo by Shiori Kosaka)

Mr. Ishida was 4 years old when the atomic bomb was dropped. He had been evacuated to Etajima Island, along with his mother and younger brother, prior to the blast. From the island he could see the mushroom cloud. His grandparents, though, remained in the city and were killed near the hypocenter. Ten days afterwards, his family returned to Hiroshima. He remembers seeing blue fires burning in the dark.

When he was a child, he didn't have any special feelings toward the United States. "I was so young, I couldn't understand the link between the terrible atomic bomb and the United States. Both at home and at school, talking about such things was taboo," he recalls. Basically, he feels positive toward the United States now, but he still feels anger over the atomic bomb. "What the United States did was truly inhuman and can't be forgiven."

Mr. Ishida looks forward to seeing his picture again, preserved in the United States for more than 60 years, and he wonders how he'll feel when he sees it. He hopes that the visitors to the exhibition will think about peace in relation to their families and others around them. (Shiori Kosaka, 15, and Saaya Teranishi, 14)

Enjoying cherry blossoms safely

"Country of cherry blossoms, Japan" by Toshiko Suemasa

Toshiko Suemasa, 71, is a resident of Hiroshima. During the war, her family evacuated to the northern part of Takehara City, east of Hiroshima. In 1947, they returned to Hiroshima and she began attending Okou Elementary School, near her father's parents' house. The following year her family moved again to her mother's parents' house and she enrolled at Honkawa Elementary School. Ms. Suemasa encountered a number of relics of the A-bomb damage near the school. While swimming in the river, she struck a human bone with her foot. Another time, she saw something whirling like a firefly and found that it was the spontaneous combustion of a bone fragment. She said she was surprised, yet didn't feel scared or disgusted.

Toshiko Suemasa smiles and says: "The strain has gradually eased, so I can now talk about those days."

"How are we going to make it through another day?" she remembers constantly thinking. Her father died in the war and she lived with her mother and her two younger sisters. They didn't have enough food and earning enough income was hard without her father. She always worried that if her mother got ill, she wouldn't be able to provide for her sisters and their family would fall apart.

For the exchange, she made a work of calligraphy, writing "Japan, the country of cherry blossoms," when she was in fifth grade. When she learned that her calligraphy had been preserved all this time, she felt "surprised and amazed that it was found after 60 years."

Society today may be well-off, economically, but crime, including murder, now occurs more frequently. Ms. Suemasa hopes that "Japan becomes a country where people have bountiful hearts and can safely enjoy the cherry blossoms." (Yuumi Kimura, 14)