{"id":6105,"date":"2023-03-12T00:13:21","date_gmt":"2023-03-11T15:13:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/faces-hiroshima.com\/?p=6105"},"modified":"2024-09-01T03:02:09","modified_gmt":"2024-08-31T18:02:09","slug":"keiko-shimizu","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/faces-hiroshima.com\/en\/keiko-shimizu\/","title":{"rendered":"Keiko Shimizu"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Hiroshima: Faces<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Keiko Shimizu<\/h1>\n\n\n\n

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I do not have an Atomic Bomb Survivor\u2019s Certificate.

But my eyes,
my lungs,
my blood,

Every single part of me
is constantly reminding me:

\u201cYou are a hibakusha.<\/em>\u201d
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I do not have an Atomic Bomb Survivor\u2019s Certificate.

But my eyes,
my lungs,
my blood,

Every single part of me
is constantly reminding me:

\u201cYou are a hibakusha.<\/em>\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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  • \nStory.1<\/span>\n
    <\/span>\nKeiko Shimizu<\/span>\n<\/li><\/ul>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

    Keiko Shimizu<\/strong> (n\u00e9e Akimoto)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Born December 23, 1943, in Kirinoki Town (present day Minami Ward), Hiroshima City. In March 1945, Keiko was evacuated to a relative\u2019s house in Zouka Village (present day Higashi-Hiroshima City). Her father was away fighting in the war, and her mother was pregnant.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    On August 6, 1945, her mother was hanging out the laundry with Keiko, who was one year and seven months old at the time, strapped to her back. At 8:15 a.m., her mother felt a kind of heavy pressure in the air \u2014 unlike anything she had ever felt before \u2014 weighing down on her. She instinctively covered both her and her daughter\u2019s heads with the laundry and got down onto her stomach on the ground. It was not until later that she would learn that the strange sensation had been caused by the atomic bomb being dropped on Hiroshima City.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    The next day, many people who had been exposed to the atomic bomb in Hiroshima fled back to their village. The villagers all worked together to care for the survivors, and Keiko\u2019s heavily pregnant mother worked among them. However, her mother soon began to complain that she was feeling unwell and became unable to care for Keiko, who was still very young. It was decided that Keiko would be taken to relatives in Kumano (Kumano Town, Aki District, Hiroshima Prefecture), and her grandfather took her out and visited the area around Hiroshima Station. In the end, she was not able to stay in Kumano because many of her other relatives had also moved there, but she was exposed to the radiation when she entered the city during that visit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Around the age of two, her eyesight began to deteriorate, and she developed a squint. In the spring of 1956, they moved to a house in Danbara (Minami Ward, Hiroshima City) that belonged to her grandfather, where she lived together with her relatives as one big family.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Later, she suffered from bleeding of the gums and was unable to eat. Around the time that she entered elementary school, she had also developed pulmonary tuberculosis and pleurisy, which meant she was sometimes absent from school for long periods of time. It was not uncommon for her to have nosebleeds, diarrhea, and convulsions. The same was also true for her younger brother, Takeshi.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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    A family photograph<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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    A family visit to Miyajima during her childhood. Keiko is front right.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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    Keiko\u2019s mother was engaged in relief work for hibakusha<\/em> in Zouka Village, where the family had been evacuated to.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    She was pregnant with Keiko\u2019s younger brother at the time. As a young child, Keiko entered Hiroshima City in the days after the bomb was dropped. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Although the three of them do not hold Atomic Bomb Survivor Certificates, they still suffered in their own ways. Who could imagine that her sweetly smiling younger brother would die at the young age of 33?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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    With her parents and younger brother. Keiko is far left. Taken in 1954. Although she was sick and frail, her childhood was surrounded by love from her family.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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    A childhood that nurtured sensitivity<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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    Taken at a photo studio on December 23, 1955, 10 years after the war ended, on her 12th<\/sup> birthday. At the time, Keiko attended operetta practice every week.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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    Keiko loved to sing and excelled in music class, so her third grade homeroom teacher invited her to participate in a children\u2019s theatre company. It was these childhood experiences that would later introduce Keiko to the world of professional recitation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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    With the performers of the children\u2019s operetta.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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    January 28, 1956.
    It was a cold winter\u2019s afternoon.

    The children of Hiroshima City
    Gathered at Noboricho Junior High School.* <\/span>

    \u201cLet\u2019s make a monument for the children of the atomic bomb!\u201d
    Beyond individual schools and grade levels,
    We were united as one.

    Sadako\u2019s* <\/span> death,
    10 years after the bombing
    Had affected
    All of us<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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    January 28, 1956.
    It was a cold winter\u2019s afternoon.

    The children of Hiroshima City
    Gathered at Noboricho Junior High School.* <\/span>

    \u201cLet\u2019s make a monument for the children of the atomic bomb!\u201d
    Beyond individual schools and grade levels,
    We were united as one.


    Sadako\u2019s* <\/span> death,
    10 years after the bombing
    Had affected
    All of us<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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    • \nStory.2<\/span>\n
      <\/span>\nKeiko Shimizu<\/span>\n<\/li><\/ul>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

      Keiko\u2019s life changed when she met Shizuko Ogata, her fifth- and sixth-grade homeroom teacher at Danbara Elementary School. As Keiko and a friend were working on their graduation essays, Ms. Ogata approached them and said, \u201cI would like the two of you to go to an important meeting, a discussion group of students from various schools.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

      The meeting was held at Noboricho Junior High School on January 28, 1956, a cold afternoon with a sprinkling of snow. The meeting was attended by members of student councils from almost every elementary school, junior high school, and high school in Hiroshima City. They gathered to hear the story of the death of a young girl who had died of leukemia 10 years after the bombing. At the meeting, a classmate of Sadako Sasaki* <\/span>appealed for their cooperation to erect a statue, the Children\u2019s Peace Monument. With the full support of all in attendance, the Hiroshima Peace-Building Children and Students Association was formed. Since then, Keiko and her friends have been members of the association and have been involved in fundraising and various other activities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

      Thanks to the efforts of many children and the support of adults behind the scenes, the Children\u2019s Peace Monumentwas completed. On May 5, 1958 \u2014 Children\u2019s Day \u2014 Keiko, then 15 years old and a third-year student at Danbara Junior High School, attended the unveiling ceremony.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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      In memory of a beloved teacher,
      Ms. Shizuko Ogata<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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      At a time when the war was raging and most teachers were being sent off to war, 18-year-old Ms. Ogata, who had just graduated from school herself, was working at  Hiroshima City Hirose National School* <\/span> as a substitute teacher. It was there at the school, about 1.2 km from the hypocentre, that she was exposed to the atomic bomb and suffered burns and injuries to most of her body. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

      She was later transferred to Danbara Elementary School, where she became Keiko\u2019s fifth- and sixth-grade homeroom teacher. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

      \u201cShe often took us to the Peace Memorial Museum, even though she was suffering from aftereffects of the bombing herself. My fondness for her still lives on in me, even today,\u201d Keiko said. Ms. Ogata died of pancreatic cancer in 1971, at the young age of 44.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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      The Children\u2019s Peace Monument
      \u2013 Born out of the strength of children<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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      The Hiroshima Peace-Building Children and Students Association has been involved in a wide range of activities, including fundraising for the Children\u2019s Peace Monument; writing thank-you letters to donors; visiting A-Bomb survivors; visiting facilities for orphans and children with disabilities and offering their support; conducting surveys of children hibakusha<\/em>; and holding peace study groups and discussions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

      \u201cWe received donations and letters from abroad, including from countries like England and Hungary. We used a corner of the library at Noboricho Junior High School as our office and wrote thank you letters to them. What started as the actions taken by a group of children in Hiroshima has now spread throughout Japan and around the world,\u201d Keiko said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

      The children\u2019s activities were also depicted in the film, Senbazuru<\/em> (1958, directed by Sotoji Kimura, Kyodo Eigasha).<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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      May 5, 1958. The unveiling ceremony for t<\/em>he Children\u2019s Peace Monument.
      Keiko is among the crowd.
      Courtesy of the Chugoku Shinbun.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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