Mother passed away, Hiromu was left with keloids: Mental and physical wounds

Hiromu’s sense of grief over the loss of his mother escalated as he went through adolescence. His mother, who had so kindly seen him off at the door, reduced to nothing but white bones a few days later was too cruel and difficult for a 14-year-old boy to accept. “I would feel like my mother was going to show up somehow. My desire for kindness, a presence that would watch over me, grew stronger,” he said. The atomic bomb destroyed the city of Hiroshima. As if to erase the feeling of emptiness that “everything that has physical form crumbles and breaks down,” Hiromu sought something eternal, something that will never perish, something Romantic.

On the other hand, the keloids left on his face and neck became a “visible trauma” that tormented Hiromu for a long time. He felt the pain of not being able to escape the gazes of those around him. He hated looking in the mirror. He could not accept himself.

“The dome, it is my keloids. Fetters that I cannot escape. Though I want to destroy it, I do not because if I do, the world will collapse.”
In his collection of poems, “Faces of Hiroshima,” Hiromu expresses his internal conflict by comparing the Atomic Bomb Dome to his keloids.

▲Hiromu after the atomic bombing.

▲In 1946, at the site of Hiroshima Army Hospital Eba Branch. Hiromu met with his schoolmates for the first time since the atomic bombing. “Some of my friends had died, some, like me, had lost family members, and some had suffered burns. The values of militaristic education had collapsed, and we had lost everything. We were not in the condition to be sincerely happy to see friends again. I felt like screaming out loud.”

A drawing Hiromu made depicting his experience of the atomic bombing. In addition to the devastation he saw and experienced, he also depicted his friends’ experiences. The caption reads “A flash of light, a heat ray. In an instant, we 70 students were thrown into a huge furnace. And then the hot wind… (West of Tsurumi Bridge, 1.5km from the hypocenter)”

Reserved and provided by the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum

▲A drawing Hiromu made depicting his experience of the atomic bombing. In addition to the devastation he saw and experienced, he also depicted his friends’ experiences. The caption reads “A flash of light, a heat ray. In an instant, we 70 students were thrown into a huge furnace. And then the hot wind… (West of Tsurumi Bridge, 1.5km from the hypocenter)”

Reserved and provided by the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum

▲Hiromu when he was in Hiroshima Higher Normal School (Now Hiroshima University, Faculty of Education).

▲A former army clothing factory in Hiroshima was used as a campus building for the Hiroshima Higher Normal School for several years from 1946. This is one of the rare photographs of the former army clothing factory at the time.

Knowing his son was bothered by his keloids, Hiromu’s father kept encouraging him not to worry about his appearance, which cannot change, but to refine his mind. Hiromu is still grateful to his father for this encouragement, which he says “led me to deepen my inner quest” in later life. While he studied at Hiroshima University, Hiromu immersed himself in writing poems and novels, but it took him six years to graduate from the university as he went through treatments for tuberculosis.

A friend suggested that Hiromu write tanka poems since he would be bored in his sickbed, so he joined a tanka poetry society and devoted himself to creating tanka poems. The society was based on aestheticism, which encouraged him to find beauty in life. Measuring body temperature with a thermometer — if the mercury scale rises, the body has a fever, which is considered “bad.” Aestheticism, however, considered the movement itself “beautiful.” By observing everyday life, his sensibility was refined. Hiromu contributed to magazines, and participated in literary criticism groups; his tanka poem writing, which was merely a way to pass the time on his sickbed, eventually became his ikigai — his purpose in life — and empowered him for his later creative activities, such as poetry and calligraphy.

When Hiromu was about to start his teaching career, he met people who were essential in the history of hibakusha in Hiroshima, such as Mr. Ichiro Kawamoto (center, back row) and Mrs. Ikimi Kikkawa (center, front row) who inspired him. Hiromu is on the right.

▲When Hiromu was about to start his teaching career, he met people who were essential in the history of hibakusha in Hiroshima, such as Mr. Ichiro Kawamoto (center, back row) and Mrs. Ikimi Kikkawa (center, front row) who inspired him. Hiromu is on the right.

▲Taken around the time Hiromu started teaching Japanese and calligraphy at Oshita-Gakuen Gion High School. He taught only a few days per week due to the continued treatment of his tuberculosis.

◀Taken around the time Hiromu started teaching Japanese and calligraphy at Oshita-Gakuen Gion High School. He taught only a few days per week due to the continued treatment of his tuberculosis.

In 1956, more than ten years after the end of the war, an exposition on the peaceful uses of nuclear energy was held at the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum. As a teacher in a girls’ school, Hiromu went to the exposition on a school trip. “Tracking diseases (radioisotopes), and providing energy for airplanes and ships. The exhibit was praising the wonderful things that nuclear power can do.”

At the same time, however, memories of the atomic bombing remained in the same museum. Seeing exhibits like specimens of keloids and relics melted by the bomb’s intense heat, students whispered, “I’m scared, I’m scared,” and “I might not be able to sleep tonight.” Hiromu was enjoying his days as a teacher when he suddenly came to his senses. He thought, “What do these students think of me in the classroom? And my keloids. Ugly things are ugly, aren’t they…” He began to avoid topics related to the atomic bombing and even thought of terminating his teaching career.

Hiromu when he became a teacher. Having suffered from tuberculosis and undergone long-term medical treatment for a pneumothorax while a student at Hiroshima University, he was extremely happy to be able to leave his hospital bed and work.

▲Hiromu when he became a teacher. Having suffered from tuberculosis and undergone long-term medical treatment for a pneumothorax while a student at Hiroshima University, he was extremely happy to be able to leave his hospital bed and work.

Inspired by the birth of his daughter: Hiromu shares his story for the sake of all children

▲Hiromu taught calligraphy at Hatsukaichi High School in Hatsukaichi City, Hiroshima. As a hibakusha and a teacher, he also began peace education lessons, which he devoted himself to.

▲Hiromu’s calligraphy: “Although children like to run naked in summer, don’t let them take off their kimono — I see again the toddlers charred black.”

Hiromu had believed war would never happen again; however, the start of the Korean War in 1950 betrayed his faith. He wondered if nuclear weapons, which had had caused him so much pain, would be used again. Although anti-war activists urged him to lead protest actions because he had keloid scars, Hiromu firmly believed that keloids should not be used as a PR tactic.

After finding work as a calligraphy teacher at a prefectural high school, Hiromu was so occupied with daily tasks that he purposefully did not reflect on his past. In his 30s, he married and started a family — that’s when his thinking changed.

Hiromu felt a strong vitality and happiness at the sight of his daughter desperately clinging to his wife’s breast. At the same time, the sight of his daughter recalled for Hiromu the face of the charred infant he had seen in the burnt ruins after the atomic bombing.

“Such precious children must never face that cruel fate again,” Hiromu thought. Although he had avoided speaking about his experience of the atomic bombing, his daughter — her eyes not even open yet — encouraged Hiromu to begin sharing his testimony.

▲Hiromu’s wife, Hisako, and their three children.
Hiromu’s family was always his emotional rock.

▲Hiromu together with his second daughter and eldest son.

◀(Left)
Hiromu’s wife, Hisako, and their three children. Hiromu’s family was always his emotional rock.

(Right)
Hiromu together with his second daughter and eldest son.

▲Hiromu (right) with Barbara Reynolds (center) and Kaoru Ogura, a Hiroshima City official who served as Hiroshima Peace Culture Foundation Executive Director and Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum Director prior to his death in 1979.

　

▲With a host family in Illinois, United States.

▲Before the departure of the Peace Pilgrimage: Hiromu’s wife, Tsuneko (right); his father and eldest daughter (center); Tsuneko’s mother (left).

In the 1960s, around the time Hiromu decided to share his experience of the atomic bombing, events such as the Cuban Missile Crisis (1962) and China’s first nuclear tests (1964) heightened tensions over nuclear weapons. Amid these events, Hiromu learned that Barbara Reynolds had organized a World Peace Pilgrimage, and he participated for the first time. He traveled for 75 days with roughly a dozen hibakusha and an interpreter to eight countries, including the U.S., France, and the Soviet Union, to call for the abolition of nuclear weapons.

Although the U.S. had deprived Hiromu of his mother and made him suffer as a hibakusha, he had no hesitation in visiting the U.S. He also learned that members of American NGOs and others were supporting his pilgrimage, and he felt no hatred. Curiosity, too, encouraged him on his journey.

▲Former U.S. President Harry S. Truman at the Truman Library, with the stage set as if for an interview. The Japanese delegation, including Hiromu and other hibakusha, watched with bated breath.

　

After the meeting with former President Truman, in the midst of all the excitement, Hiromu took his pen and recorded his impressions. He keeps the precious notes still today.

▲Hiromu after the meeting with former President Truman.

▲After the meeting with former President Truman, in the midst of all the excitement, Hiromu took his pen and recorded his impressions. He keeps the precious notes still today.

While staying in the U.S. in 1964, Barbara arranged for the Japanese delegation to meet with former U.S. President Harry S. Truman, the face of what the Japanese had referred to as “Western brutes” during World War II. Truman, the head of the Japanese delegation, and an interpreter spoke on stage, while Hiromu and the others watched from the audience.

“I don’t want that kind of thing to happen again,” Truman said, an ambiguous statement that could mean either the war or the atomic bombings. Hiromu later felt that Truman was implying that the atomic bombings were necessary to save the lives of many U.S. soldiers and end the war. The meeting lasted only three minutes. Truman closed by saying that international disputes should be resolved through the United Nations, which he had helped create.

Some said Truman should be commended for meeting with hibakusha, but from the hibakusha’s point of view, the meeting had been a letdown. Hiromu, too, expressed his disappointment in a contemporaneous memo.

“I wanted Truman to say that he was sorry for doing such a terrible thing. Did the young children in Hiroshima and Nagasaki not cross his mind when he made the decision to drop the bombs?” he recalled.