II Coverage of the Atomic Bombing
1 The Lost Reports
When the first atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima City by the U.S. Forces on August 6, 1945, it caused catastrophic damage to people and buildings; and news organizations were no exception. 1)
The Chugoku Shimbun had continued to issue the only newspaper in Hiroshima Prefecture.2) The head office of the company was located in Kaminagarekawa-cho (now
Ebisu-cho, Naka-ku) some 900 meters east of the hypocenter. The three-storied main building (equipped with two rotary presses) and the seven-storied Chugoku Building to its west were completely incinerated. The Chugoku Shimbun lost 114 employees or one out of every three employees of the head office.3) Many of the surviving employees had also lost their families.
News of the A-bomb began to be reported from Hiroshima in the midst of unprecedented confusion. Reporters of various news organizations struggled hard to send out their first-hand reports of the destruction of Hiroshima, but they became “lost reports.”
At 8:15 a.m., Satoshi Nakamura, chief editor of the Domei News Agency’s Hiroshima branch, was in Itsukaichi-cho (now part of Saeki-ku), an area on the west side of the city where employees lived. He saw tornado-like black smoke rise up over the skies of Hiroshima City and went by his bicycle. Around 11:20 a.m., he transmitted the following from the Hiroshima Central Broadcasting Station’s Hara Station in Gion-cho (now part of Asaminami-ku) to the north of the city.4)
“Hiroshima has been completely destroyed by fire, with some 170,000 dead.” The Domei’s Hiroshima branch was located in the Chugoku Building, but in preparation for air raids the Hara Station had been designated as their evacuation point.5) The broadcasting station in Kaminagarekawa-cho (now Nobori-cho, Naka-ku) near Shukkeien was burned to the ground; and the surviving staff members (including an engineer) made their way to the Hara Station on foot and by boat. There, they tried to call the Osaka Central Broadcasting Station using the Osaka business line (used between stations for the planning of broadcasts.)6)
The transmission was transcribed by an employee at the Domei Okayama Branch at the Okayama Broadcasting Station, which took the call from Hara Station.7) However, the Domei’s head office in Tokyo did not immediately believe the massive scale of the damages and expressed doubts.
Yoshie Shigetomi, a reporter at the Mainichi Newspaper’s Hiroshima Bureau, was at home in Tate-machi (now part of Naka-ku) when the bomb dropped; and he evacuated with his wife to Kabe-cho (now part of Asakita-ku), where he arrived around noon. He asked the head of the Kabe Police Station to use the police phone to send the following transmission: “The city has been completely annihilated; countless dead.”8) However, it did not reach the Mainichi’s Osaka head office.9)
Haruo Oshita, chief proofreader at the Chugoku Shimbun, finally made it to the head office little after 2 p.m. from his house in Itsukaichi-cho.10) Soon, Shigetoshi Itokawa (manager of the research department) who was at home in Ushita-machi (now part of Higashi-ku) when the bomb was dropped, and other arrived. Itokawa said, “Let’s ask another company to distribute our paper.” He had already discussed the matter with President Jitsuichi Yamamoto, who had evacuated to Fuchu Town on the east side of Hiroshima City.
Telephone and telegraph services were interrupted. So, they split up and headed out to the Second General Army Headquarters in Futaba-no-Sato (now part of Higashi-ku) and the Army Marine Headquarters in Ujina-machi (now part of Minami-ku). The radio message from the Marine Headquarters went to the Osaka and the Seibu (Western Japan) head offices of the Asahi Shimbun and the Mainichi Newspapers through the Government-General of the Kinki District and that of Kyushu.11)
The message sent out via the Army’s wireless system requesting that their paper be printed by another newspaper company became the first report by the Chugoku Shimbun on the destruction of Hiroshima, delivered by reporters who walked through the town of corpses.
After the bombing, newspapers were once again delivered to Hiroshima starting on August 9.12) That day’s edition, entitled “Chugoku Shimbun” ran an article on air raids in Kitakyushu and Nagasaki as announced by the Western Military District on the top of the front page, along with other reports on the left-hand side of it, including the “war death” of Yi Wu, a member of the Korean Royal Family, announced August 8 by the Ministry of the Imperial Household; and an announcement from the Ministry of Home Affairs’ Air Defense General Headquarters.13) It called for reinforcement of air-raid shelters for an “attack with a new type of bomb.”14)
The national government and the military authorities hid the enormity of the damages from the atomic bombing and continued to tightly control the press in order to maintain morale among the people.
2 Covering the Disaster
Yoshito Matsushige, a photographer at the Chugoku Shimbun, was also a member of the news team of the Chugoku Military District Headquarters established on the grounds of Hiroshima Castle. He was on standby at the headquarters overnight because of the intermittent air-raid warnings, but as the standby was lifted, he returned to his home in Midori-machi (now Nishi Midori-machi, Minami-ku), where he was caught up in the bombing.
He was some 2.7 kilometers southeast of the hypocenter. The window frames of his house-cum-barbershop were blown out, but both he and his camera, a Mamiya 6 fastened to his waist by a leather band, were unharmed.
Just after 11 a.m., he took his first photo, of the men and women, young and old, who “seemed not of this world” at the Miyuki Bridge, some 2.2 kilometers from the hypocenter. He got closer to take his second shot, with “his viewfinder clouded with tears.” As he headed for the head office in Kaminagarekawa-cho, he caught sight of a person on a streetcar, incinerated but still clutching the strap, but he could not bring himself to take any photos of it.15) Even so, by just after 4 p.m. he had taken dive photos.16)
These photos came to represent the atomic bombing of Hiroshima; but as the head office of the Chugoku Shimbun was completely burned, he could not run these photos in the newspaper.17)
Kunso Yoshida, a reporter from the news department of the Asashi Shimbun’s Seibu Head Office, was in Hatsukaichi-cho (now part of Hatsukaichi City) on the west side of Hiroshima City. He had returned to his parents’ home after being driven out of his own by fire caused by air raids in Moji City (now part of Kitakyushu City).18) He got a lift on a military truck heading for the Hiroshima delta.
What about this disaster? Each and every person in the crowd has ripped clothes to the point of nakedness. What is more, their faces, arms, and legs were covered in burns to the point where I cannot tell whether they are male or female.” This disaster was covered in the August 22 Seibu edition. During the war, reporters were unable to give eyewitness accounts on what they saw.19)
An article sent by Eijiro Kishida, a reporter for the wire service department at the Asahi Shimbun’s Seibu Head Office,20) who came in from Kokura City (now part of Kitakyushu City) on August 7, was published at the top of the second page of the Seibu edition on August 10. The headline read “There shall be revenge for these piles of corpses – a pledge of wrath against our enemies for this atrocity.” It was to be an article to lift the fighting spirit of the people.
Goro Ogura, a reporter at the Asahi Shimbun’s Hiroshima branch, who was in the north of the city and thus avoided being caught up in the bombing, later wrote about his state of mind directly after the bombing. “I knew I should write a long piece and try to find a way to submit it, but I just did not all have it in me to do it.”21) The reporters onsite at these dreadful places were overwhelmed with a sense of hopelessness.
Yukio Kunihira, a reporter from the photography department of the Mainichi Newspapers Osaka Head Office, arrived in Hiroshima with Mr. Nishio, a reporter from the news department and took photos on August 9. Two photos were featured in the August 11 Osaka edition: one showing canned food being brought into the Hiroshima Higashi Police Station, in which the temporary prefectural government office was set up, and another of a neighborhood association’s office set up in an underground air-raid shelter.22) However, the headline of the article read “Danger for only an instant when the light flashed – Residents of Hiroshima are bravely fighting this atrocity.”
Control over the press did not loosen. Since there was no paper or ink, the reporters of the Chugoku Shimbun formed the “kudentai” (Verbal Reporting Corps on August 7.23) They gave verbal reports on emergency relief policies for victims of the bombing; temporary relief stations for the wounded; emergency provision, and various other situations.24) Hirokuni Dazai (then head of the Prefectural Police Department’s Special Political Police Section) warned, “The term ‘atomic bomb’ must not be used; just staying the word is punishable.”25) However, the word “picador”26) used as a stand-in for “atomic bomb” quickly spread. Dazai dit not ban this word, saying, “People have a knack with words.”
3 Communiques
“The first news report of the atomic bombing was a 6 p.m. radio broadcast on August 6.” 27) While it is unclear whether the report was broadcast nationally or not, 28) its details can be found in the following announcement by the Chubu Military District Headquarters (Osaka) featured in the August 7 Osaka edition of the Asahi Shimbun. “Around 7:50, August 6, two B29 bombers were moving north from the seas southeast of Shikoku. Signs of some damage around Hiroshima City.”29)
The Imperial Headquarters released the following communique around 3 p.m. on August 7.30)
“1. Yesterday, August 6, Hiroshima City suffered considerable damage from a strike by a small number of enemy B29 bombers. 2. It seems that the enemy used a new type of bomb in this attack. The details are still under investigation.”
Following the radio coverage31) all papers reported on it in four-line headlines at the top of their front pages on August 8.
The Cabinet Intelligence Bureau listened in on U.S. radio broadcast in the early hours of August 7. In it, President Truman announced that the U.S. had dropped an “atomic bomb.”32)
However, the military authorities opposed using the term “atomic bomb” because of the major negative impact it would have on the morale of the Japanese people. The government also called it a “new type of bomb.”33) By changing the wording, they tried to cover up the severity of the situation.34) The government simultaneously lodged a protest against the United States through its envoy in Switzerland on August 10.
By the time they sent the message, “We strongly request that the use of such inhumane weapons be immediately abandoned,”35) another atomic bomb had already been dropped on Nagasaki.
The August 11 Tokyo edition of the Asahi Shimbun ran an article on the government’s protest with a headline reading, “A Cruel New Type of Bomb.” But the headline for President Truman’s radio address featured in the Asahi Shimbun’s Zurich special dispatch of August 9 read, “A Display of Power with the Atomic Bomb.” The headline of the article in the Osaka edition on the government’s protest read “Atomic Bombs – More Barbaric than Poison Gas.”36)
Then the people heard the Emperor’s radio announcement of Japan’s surrender at noon on August 15 and learned that Japan had lost. The imperial rescript announcing the end of the war could not help but mention the horrible damage wrought by the atomic bombing, stating, “Moreover, the enemy has begun to employ a new and most cruel bomb, the destructive power of which is indeed, incalculable, taking the toll of many innocent lives.” After Japan lost the war, there was a torrent of articles on the destruction caused by the atomic bombs.
4 The Early Coverage
The August 16 Tokyo edition of the Asahi Shimbun featured an explanation by Dr. Yoshio Nishina of the Institute of Physical and Chemical Research, who had arrived in Hiroshima on August 8,37) and Tsunesaburo Asada, professor at Osaka Imperial University who worked as a member of the Osaka naval investigation team,38) and reported on the U.S. Army’s announcement, in the Zurich special dispatch of August 8. “Approximately a 10 square kilometer area has been completely destroyed.” The article took up two-thirds of page two. The August 16 Asahi Shimbun’s Osaka edition introduced news from Britain in their Stockholm special dispatch of August 14.39) “The entire world has changed instantly. The atomic bomb can annihilate the Earth. However, if used for peaceful purposes, it marks the start of a new era.”
The Domei News Agency sent a wire from Lisbon (dated August 19) saying that “a British pastor” had “severely criticized the inhumanity of the atomic bombing.”40)
The atomic bomb is a weapon of mass destruction that can destroy the world. And the idea that the power of the atom could be used for “peace” also came to spread after “August 6.”
On August 10, Satsuo Nakata, a reporter at the Domei’s Osaka branch, arrived in Hiroshima with the Osaka naval investigation team and began taking photos.41)
His photo of the ruins taken from the Chugoku Building was featured in the Asahi Shimbun and the Mainichi Newspapers’ Tokyo and Osaka editions, the Yomiuri Hochi (Yomiuri), the Chubu Nihon (Chunichi) and other newspapers on August 19. The tragic image from Hiroshima, showing only one chimney left standing, was reported nationwide. The people of Japan saw a part of the catastrophe wrought by the atomic bomb with their very own eyes.
During the confusion that came with defeat, the strict press regulations from military authorities collapsed. After reporting on the power of the atomic bomb, the press began reporting on the effects of radiation sickness.
The headline of the August 23 Mainichi Newspaper’s Osaka edition read “Lingering horrors of the atomic bomb – Uninhabitable for seven decades – The ruins of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, monuments to war,” expressing the seriousness of the situation. “The Americans are also reporting the horrible truth that Hiroshima and Nagasaki will be uninhabitable for grass, trees, and all forms of life for 70 years.” 42) The news from the United States had even reached mainland China.43)
According to an August 27 Chugoku Shimbun report (with a substitute printing by the Mainichi Newspaper Seibu Head Office), people were coughing up blood, losing their hair, and dying, and so were their parents and wives and children. Facing this reality, the survivors were once again confronted with the horror of the atomic bombing.44)
With its head office completely burned, the Chugoku Shimbun tried to resume printing and issuing its papers as soon as possible. Even as employees were fighting acute radiation sickness, they traveled to a dairy farm in Nukushina-mura (now part of Higashi-ku), where one rotary press had been evacuated. They spent the night in tents as they continued to work.45)
The Chugoku Shimbun resumed printing its papers on September 3.46) In that issue, the headline on the top left of the front page said, “With damage from the war, request to the government,” appealing for assistance from the A-bombed city.
“The terrible state of Hiroshima, which suffered an A-bomb attack, is totally beyond description.. We hope for the swift implementation of aggressive, concrete relief measures for the citizens.”
On September 3, the day after Mamoru Shigemitsu (Minister of Foreign Affairs and representative of the government) signed the Instrument of Surrender aboard USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay, a group of about 20 people including the U.S. correspondents visited Hiroshima from Kure (with Japanese-American soldier-linguists as their interpreters).47) American and European reporters wanted to be the first to enter Hiroshima and send out their reportage. In fact, on August 27, Leslie Nakashima (a Japanese-American from Hawaii, assigned to the UP’s Tokyo Bureau until the start of the U.S.-Japan war) had sent a wire through a UP reporter who had entered Tokyo with the advance troop of the Allied Forces.48)
The U.S. war correspondents asked the aforementioned Hirokuni Dazai, head of the Prefectural Police Department’s Special Political Police Section, Ichiro Osako of the Chugoku Shimbun news department, and Yoshie Shigetomi of the Mainichi Newspaper’s Hiroshima Bureau to detail their August 6 experiences. This was the first dialogue between Japanese and American civilians over the atomic bombing.
The September 5 edition of the Chugoku Shimbun featured “Question-Answer Dialogue between American and Japanese Reporters” on the top of page two.
“The reporters from the Kisha (press) Club at Hiroshima Prefectural Government Office: How did you feel when you saw the damage in Hiroshima City?” “American correspondents: We have been to war fronts in Europe and the Pacific and, Hiroshima has suffered the worst damage of all cities.”49)
W.H. Lawrence, dispatched from the New York Times, had the following to say in his Hiroshima coverage published on September 5:
“The atomic bomb still is killing Japanese at a rate of 100 daily in flattened, rubble-strewn Hiroshima, where the secret weapon harnessing the power of the universe itself as a destructive agent was used for the first time on Aug. 6….the stench of death still pervades and survivors or relatives of the dead, wearing gauze patches over their mouths, still probe among the ruins for bodies or possessions.”50)
Special correspondent Wilfred Burchett of London Daily Express, who had arrived in Hiroshima alone, wrote on September 5: “People are still dying (snip) from an unknown something which I can only describe as the atomic plague.”51)
It was impossible for American and European reporters who traveled to Hiroshima to miss the cruelty of the atomic bombing. At the same time, films taken in Hiroshima were used by the U.S. government and military to support the claims that the use of the atomic bomb was legitimate.52)
The September 4 Osaka edition of the Asahi Shimbun said “Atomic bomb – savagery that one cannot bear to look upon” and featured four photos including one of a young boy receiving treatment at the Hiroshima Red Cross Hospital. This was the first report with photos that focused on people exposed to the A-bomb. Hajime Miyatake, a reporter in the photography department of the Osaka Head Office, went in to take these photos on August 9 as a photographer in the propaganda team from the Chubu Military District Headquarters.53)
Full reporting of the enormity of the damage began in Japan after its defeat in the war, and overseas after American and European correspondents arrived Hiroshima. However, report ended short, and once again reporting was prohibited.
Douglas MacArthur, Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers, touched down at the Atsugi Airfield in Kanagawa Prefecture on August 30 to start the Japanese occupation. On September 6, he ordered the Japanese government to assist with an investigation into the atomic bombing.54) Brigadier General Thomas Farrell, number two of the Manhattan Project to develop the atomic bomb, led the Manhattan District investigation team and entered Hiroshima via Iwakuni on September 9.
5 Information Control
The U.S. Department of War denied the effects of residual radiation from directly after the bombing.
A comment by Dr. Harold Jacobson (a scientist on the Manhattan Project) was distributed by the International News Services on August 7: “Actually tests have shown that the radiation in an area exposed to the force of an atomic bomb will not be dissipated for approximately 70 years. Hence, Hiroshima will be a devastated area not unlike our conception of the moon for nearly three-quarters of a century.”55) The next day, another announcement was made completely denying this.
The Department of War emphasized an observation by Dr. Robert Oppenheimer, who directed development of the atomic bomb. According to Oppenheimer, “…there is every reason to believe that there was no appreciable radioactivity on the ground at Hiroshima and what little there was decayed very rapidly.”56)
The first U.S. coverage of Hiroshima, by Leslie Nakashima, appeared in the (August 31 edition) New York Times and other papers. However, when one compares the article with the original manuscript57) you will find deliberate omissions and additions.58)
The Manhattan District investigation team, led by Brigadier General Farrell, measured the residual radiation of the hypocenter and visited the Hiroshima Red Cross Hospital and other places on September 9. They were accompanied by Dr. Marcel Junod, head of the delegation of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) to Japan, and Professor Masao Tsuzuki of the Tokyo Imperial university Faculty of Medicine.59)
In response to Professor Tsuzuki’s comment “The press has said that the effects of the toxins from the atomic bomb will last for 75 years,” Brigadier General Farrell completely denied it, saying that there would be no effects two or three days after the bombing.
The following day, in the Chugoku Shimbun’s September 10 edition, the four-line headline for the top of page two stated that the theory of 75 years was a lie. Following that, on September 15, the top headlines reported “Losses surpass 110,000: the power of the atomic bomb is still wreaking havoc,” and “Even far removed from the hypocenter, people cannot escape atomic bomb sickness.” The Chugoku Shimbun also ran articles about the effectiveness of old-fashioned folk remedies, such as “Pumpkins can also be medicine” (September 4) and “Moxibustion, Right Away!” (September 8).60) Both American and Japanese physicians were in the dark about the effects of the radiation.61)
Brigadier General Farrell held a press conference when he returned to Tokyo on September 12. He reported that the explosive power of the secret weapon was greater than what its inventors had envisaged and that it was his opinion that there was no danger to be encountered by living in this area at present.62) Both U.S. and Japanese media went along with the U.S. Army’s observations.
“The use of atomic bombs and the murder of innocent civilians is undeniably a greater violation of the international law, and a war crime, than attacking hospital ships or poisonous gas.” In response to these comments by Ichiro Hatoyama run in the Asahi Shimbun’s (September 15) Tokyo edition, GHQ lost no time in ordering a 48-hour suspension of the newspaper, suspending the September 19 and 20 editions.63)
Further, GHQ issued a press code on September 19 applying to all newspaper reports, editorials, advertisements, and all publications. Newspapers, publications, radio broadcasts, and movies were censored and monitored for content “inimical to the objectives of the occupation.” The full censorship started on October 8.64)
With this, coverage of the atomic bombing was blocked.65)
6 Press under Censorship
Censorship was instituted in line with the political interests of the occupying countries. These were, in fact, the political interests of the United States, which advanced its policies as virtually the sole occupying country.66) In principle, national newspapers based in Tokyo and Osaka were censored pre-print, while regional newspapers were censored post-print.
The Chugoku Shimbun and its evening edition, the Yukan Hiroshima (which began publication by a separate company on June 1, 1946)67) were monitored by the Third District Censorship Station of Civil Censorship Detachment (CCD), located in Fukuoka City. This does not mean that the word “atomic bomb” was excised from the pages of the morning and evening editions of the paper. The report on the atomic bombing, however, was focused on reconstruction aimed at recovering from the destruction and on making “Hiroshima an international city of culture.” This was also the earnest wish of not only A-bomb survivors who were working hard to rebuild their lives, but also for the repatriates from the overseas (from Korean Peninsula and elsewhere) returning without possessions, and for those newly arriving in the city.
As the one year anniversary of the bombing approaching, the Chugoku Shimbun held an essay contest with the them of building a “Hiroshima Utopia.”68) The editorials urged the government and encouraged citizens to rouse.
The Chugoku Shimbun also supported the programs related to the Peace Festival (today’s Peace Memorial Ceremony) held on August 6, 1947, organized by the Hiroshima Peace Festival Association (headed by Mayor Shinzo Hamai, who acted as president). The association was comprised of the City of Hiroshima, the Hiroshima Chamber of Commerce and Industry, and the Hiroshima Tourist Association.69) The day following the Festival, the morning edition of August 7, featured a message sent by general MacArthur70) in the center of the front page, and the editorial expressed “profound gratitude for his mentioning the deep significance of this festival.”
Reporting the misery brought on by the atomic bombing in a straightforward manner was viewed as inimical to the objectives of the Occupation, but focusing on reconstruction and appealing for the construction of “a nation of peace, democracy and culture” was in line with the occupational policy. GHQ had an interest in Hiroshima’s reconstruction and supported the local government’s requests.71)
Incidentally, how did the people who were censored react to this? Looking back on it, Shigetoshi Itokawa, then managing editor, noted, “We felt we could publish our newspaper quite freely, so we mede it our policy to observe the press code.”72) Compared to the strict press regulations they had faced during the war, he said there was much to learn from the American way of making newspaper.
The October 3, 1949 morning edition reported that the Hiroshima Congress of Partisans for Peace was held on the previous day at the Hiroshima Jogakuin’s auditorium, where some 200 citizens adopted a call for banning the production of atomic bombs. While only a brief, 14-line note, this was the first paper to carry the phrase “ban” atomic bombs.73)
However, articles directly criticizing atomic bombs were rare. Photographer of the Chugoku Shimbun, Yoshito Matsushige’s photos titled “HellishScenes at Miyuki Bridge,” taken directly after the bombing were first featured, not in the morning edition of the Chugoku Shimbun, but on page two of the Yukan Hiroshima, on July 6, 1946, as the “Documentary Photos of the Century.”74) The article said the reason for posting them was because an American magazine had introduced those photos to the world, but the LIFE magazine only featured them in its September 29, 1952 edition. This was seen as a way of slipping through censorship.
Censorship ended on October 31, 1949 along with the abolition of the CCD.75) Yet due to the overt pressure from GHQ (particularly evident during the Red Purge during the Korean War), the press could not report on the reality of leukemia or other serious problems resulting from the bombing nor carry appeals against the development of hydrogen bombs, developed after the atomic bombs.
7 Overt Pressure
The Korean Peninsula erupted into war on June 25, 1950. The Soviet Union had conducted an atomic bomb test in August 1949; and in October 1949, the People’s Republic of China had been established. While the Cold War intensified, GHQ’s occupational policy shifted to “fighting communism.”
On June 26, 1950, the day following the outbreak of the Korean War, “MacArthur’s letter” ordered that publication of the Akahata, issued by the Japanese Communist Party, be halted for 30 days. On July 28, 336 employees at five Tokyo newspapers, two news agencies and NHK were the first to be fired for being “communists or their sympathizers.”76) The Red Purge raged through newspaper companies nationwide.77)
Twenty-one people at the Chugoku Shimbun were fired on August 5.78) The editorial of August 6 entitled, “Five years after the bomb and a prayer for peace” stated, “Radical demonstrations and merrymaking festivals with singing and dancing should definitely be discreet.” Due to pressure from the Chugoku Region Civil Affairs Section, the August 6 Peace Festival was suspended right before it was held, and the Hiroshima City Police Department prohibited assembly of the Hiroshima Committee of Partisans for Peace and other organization.79)
The editorial on August 6, 1951, when the Peace Festival was revived as the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Ceremony, entitled “Six years after the bombing,” shows the anguish of the times under the occupational rule of the U.S. Forces. “However much Hiroshima or Japan holds an ardent wish for peace (snip) it cannot be permitted to go beyond the limits of the current conditions. It is agony for Hiroshima and sorrow for Japan.” Twenty-four aviators who had made sorties to the Korean frontlines attended the ceremony that year from the U.S. Iwakuni Base, and a U.S. military aircraft dropped a wreath of flowers onto the grounds.80)
With the restoration of sovereignty, the press threw off its yoke and self-imposed regulations.
8 Establishing Foundations
After the San Francisco Peace Treaty went into effect on April 28, 1952, publications that addressed the catastrophe of the bombing were issued one after another.
The August 6 edition of the Asahi Graph said that this was “the first public disclosure of atomic bomb damage”81); Iwanami Shashin Bunko published Hiroshima: Senso to Toshi (Hiroshima: War and the City); Asahi Press published Genbaku Dai Ichi Go: Hiroshima no Kiroku Shashin (The First Atomic Bomb: A Photographic Record of Hiroshima).82) The August editions of the monthly publications Sekai and Fujin Koron featured single women from Hiroshima who received treatment at the University of Tokyo Hospital Koishikawa Branch Hospital.83) Further, the November special edition of Kaizo was a special number dedicated to “This affliction from Atomic Bomb.”84) The movie Genbaku no Ko (Children of Hiroshima), directed by Kaneto Shindo, had already begun filming in Hiroshima in June.85) The year 1952 was the year the “atomic bomb taboo” was lifted.
The media dubbed single women that still had keloid and functional disorders from the bombing “Hiroshima Maidens,” and often featured stories on these women and on the children who had lost their parents, or the “A-bomb orphans.”86) However, most of the media took up these stories out of pity.
One major turning point was the Bikini Atoll incident. On March 1, 1954, during the hydrogen bomb testing by the U.S. military in the Bikini Atoll in the middle of the Pacific, “ashes of death” rained down upon the Daigo Fukuryu Maru (Lucky Dragon No. 5), a tuna fishing boat that had come from Yaizu Port in Shizuoka Prefecture. The chief radio operator died in September. A national movement began demanding to ban atomic and hydrogen bombs, and some 32.16 million people participated in the signature drive.
On August 6, 1955 the World Conference against A and H Bombs was held at the city’s public auditorium, which appealed for relief for the radiation victims and to promote an end to atomic and hydrogen bombs, transcending differences in political parties, religion, and social systems.87) The following year the Japan Confederation of A-and H-Bomb Sufferers Organizations (Nihon Hidankyo) was inaugurated.
A-bomb survivors, who had been forced into the sidelines of society, stood up and took action. They asked for support based on state reparations and started a movement to question the country’s war responsibilities. The Chugoku Shimbun responded to these rising waves and increased the breadth of its coverage and deepened the focus.
“Let’s look into what the atomic bombing did to human life and thought.” “Testimonies of Hiroshima” of 1962 (33-part series) examined the reality faced by A-bomb survivors, the bereaved families, and healthcare professionals. This series created a model for the Chugoku Shimbun’s coverage of atomic bombings and peace.88) In 1964, the series was followed by an 11-part series entitled “The Atomic Bomb Survivors of Okinawa,” which was under the control of the U.S. military.
In the early 1960s, the movement protesting atomic and hydrogen bombs fell into deeper disarray due to the opposition between the Socialist Party and the Communist Party as to whether or not to protest nuclear testing in all countries. In this situation, the Chugoku Shimbun’s editorials came to deal with the issue of nuclear weapons from a human perspective, as people are the ones who suffer from the effects of nuclear weapons.
The paper’s March 20, 1964 edition criticized the political parties’ tug-of-war, saying, “Using Hiroshima as a stage for political propaganda is an unforgiveable insult to the hundreds of thousands of voiceless participants.” Further, the August 6 edition stated, “The reason the world knows of Hiroshima and Nagasaki is really because of the power of the atomic bomb, and not the tragedy of the atomic bombing.” It called for a comprehensive survey to compile a white paper on the atomic-bombing casualties in Japan to be published worldwide through the United Nations.
A series of appeals by editorial writer Toshihiro Kanai were supported by people from Hiroshima University and Yamaguchi University; Kenzaburo Oe, a writer who visited Hiroshima to do research for his book Hiroshima Notes; and the Science Council of Japan. These appeals led to a 1965 survey of A-bomb survivors by the Ministry of Health and Welfare.89)
In the summer of 1965, 20 years after the bombing, the Chugoku Shimbun made a revolutionary page in its atomic bombing and peace coverage. Under the titled “20 Years after the Bombing,” it ran three series of articles: “Share These Voices with the World,” focusing on the reality of the bombing; “Journey from the Fire,” which verified progress made from the ruins and anti-nuclear movement; and “Record of Hiroshima,” a chronicle. The one-page features, consisting of these three titles, were continuously run 30 times in the morning edition, starting on July 8.90) This “20 Years after the Bombing” reportage won the Japan Newspaper Publishers & Editions Association Award.
Seiji Imahori, a Hiroshima University professor who wrote Gensuibaku Jidai (The Age of Atomic and Hydrogen Bombs), gave the following evaluation: “Respecting the human dignity of A-bomb survivors, this feature attempts to draw compassion from people who were not victims of the atomic bombing.”91)
Although the Chugoku Shimbun also suffered from the atomic bombing, it took 20 years of unbearably difficult times to gain this standpoint and perspective, together with the people of Hiroshima. The misery caused by the atomic bombing should be treated as a human problem. Possession of nuclear weapons (which are weapons of mass destruction) and intention of acquiring them must be protested. What are the actual efforts for creating peace? To this day, the Chugoku Shimbun has continued its ceaseless efforts, in a trial-and-error manner, to report the Tomic bombings and peace.
(Masami Nishimoto)
Notes and References
1. City of Hiroshima. Hiroshima Genbaku Sensaishi: Dai San Kan (Record of the Hiroshima A-bomb War Disaster, Vol.3). City of Hiroshima, 1971: p. 431. Other than the Chugoku Shimbun, the Hiroshima Branch of Domei News Agency and the Hiroshima Central Broadcasting Station (current NHK Hiroshima Station), the following newspaper companies had offices in Hiroshima City at the time: the Asahi Shimbun, the Mainichi Newspaper, the Yomiuri Hochi (currently the Yomiuri), the Osaka Shimbun, the Kanmon Nippo, the Godo Shimbun (currently the Sanyo), and the Nishinippon Shimbun. Also, according to Ichiro Osako’s Hiroshima Showa Niju Nen (Hiroshima 1945) (Chuokoron-sha, 1985, p. 175), a Sankei Shimbun’s reporter was also in the city.
2. Under the “Guidelines on Interim Measures Concerning the Emergency Preparations of Newspapers,” (a March 1945 cabinet decision by the government), distribution of national newspapers was limited to Tokyo, Osaka, and Fukuoka in anticipation of an interruption of transportation from air raids. Local papers were commissioned to handle the printing and distribution of the number of copies allocated by these nationwide newspaper companies. This system to commission printing was called “Mochibun Godo.” According to the April 10, 1945 edition of the Chugoku Shimbun Shaho (Chugoku Shimbun Company Newsletter), starting on April 21, there was only one paper distributed in Hiroshima Prefecture, under the joint masthead of the Asahi Shimbun, the Mainichi Newspaper and the Chugoku Shimbun.
3. Chugoku Shimbun. 1945 Genbaku to Chugoku Shimbun (Hiroshima 1945: The A-bombing and the Chugoku Shimbun). Chugoku Shimbun, 2012: p. 15.
4. Nakamura, Satoshi. “Manjushage: Genshigumo no Shita no Hiroshima” (Spider Lilies: Hiroshima under the Atomic Cloud). In Hiroku Daitoa Senshi: Genbaku Kokunai Hen (Secret Records of the Greater East Asia War: Atomic Bombing in Japan). Fuji Shoen, 1953: pp. 272 – 281. Nakamura, Satoshi. “Hiroshima Genbaku Tokago no Yonjuhachi Jikan” (48 Hours after the Atomic Bombing of Hiroshima). Shimbun Kenkyu, 193 Go (NSK News Bulletin No. 193). The Japan Newspaper Publishers & Editors Association, 1967: p. 44.
5. There were 23 people working at the Domei News Agency’s Hiroshima Branch, where there were four deaths from the atomic bombing, including Tokuho Kobayashi, the branch manager. Dozoe, Yoshimizu and Kobayashi, Noriaki. “Genbakushi Shomeisho” (Atomic Bomb Death Certificates). Shimbun Tsushin Chosa Kaiho, 412 Go, 1997.
6. Diary of Hiroshi Morikawa: “Tofunroku” (Record of Rabbit Droppings), entry og August 6, 1945: Mr. Morikawa, an engineer injured by the atomic bombing while at the Hiroshima Central Broadcasting Station, arrived at the Hara Station and immediately called Osaka on short and medium wave frequencies, using the business line. Luckily, he received a reply from Okayama. He immediately communicated the overall situation and requested a shortwave broadcast from Osaka issuing orders to each station and asking for assistance. The diary is now owned by Takaaki, his eldest son. August 5, 2013 edition of the Chugoku Shimbun.
7. Hiroshima Hoso Kyoku Rokuju Nenshi Henshu Iinkai. (Ed.) NHK Hiroshima Hoso Kyoku Rokuju Nenshi (The 60-Year History of NHK-Hiroshima). NHK Hiroshima Station, 1988: p. 79. Akira Miyake, an employee at the NHK Okayama Station, testified that it was around 2 p.m.
8. Shigetomi, Yoshie. Rakugaki Zuihitsu (Graffiti Essays). Mainichi Kokoku Hiroshima Branch, 1956: p. 65.
9. Mainichi Newspapers. Mainichi no San Seiki: Jokan (Three Centuries of the Mainichi, Vol. 1). Mainichi Newspapers, 2002: p. 916. According to this book, while there was no proof that Mr. Shigetomi’s article reached the Osaka Headquarters, this was the only information sent by reporters in Hiroshima on the day of the bombing. However, as mentioned in this chapter, reporters from the Domei News Agency’s Hiroshima Branch and from the Chugoku Shimbun also sent information.
10. Oshita, Haruo. “Rekishi no Shuen” (The End of History). In Hiroku Daitoa Senshi: Genbaku Kokunai Hen (Secret Records of the Greater East Asia War: Atomic Bombing in Japan). Fuji Shoen, 1953: pp. 311-318.
11. Chugoku Shimbun Shashi Hensan Iinkai. Chugoku Shimbun Hachiju Nenshi (Eighty Years’ History of the Chugoku Shimbun). Chugoku Shimbun, 1972: p. 163. According to this book, the first report was sent from the Army Marine Headquarters, using its wireless system, a little after 9:30 p.m.
12. Hiroshima Prefecture. “Hiroshimashi Kubaku Chokugo ni Okeru Sochi Taiyo” (Overview of Measures Taken in Hiroshima City Immediately after the Aerial Bombing). Collection of Hiroshima Municipal Archives. Journal entry entitled “First Report, Records of War Damage by Hiroshima Prefecture,” August 7, 1945, in which was a description on newspaper: “Contacted regarding the 100,000 copies of newspapers are to be delivered from Osaka, 150,000 from Moji, and 12,000 from Matsue. They should arrive on August 8.” Osaka and Moji indicate the Osaka and the Seibu Head Offices of the Asahi Shimbun and the Mainichi Newspapers. “Matsue” indicates the Shimane Shimbun (now the San-in Chuo Shinpo), which distributed its newspapers in the northern part of Hiroshima Prefecture, starting from August 11. Nihon Shimbun Hyaku Nenshi Kanko Iinkai. Nihon Shimbun Hyaku Nenshi (100-Year History of Japanese Newspapers). Nihon Shimbun Hyaku Nenshi Kanko Iinkai, 1960: p. 922.
13. Yi Wu was the son of a stepbrother of Emperor Sunjong (of the Yi Dynasty of Korea). In June 1945 he assumed a post as staff officer (lieutenant colonel) of education for the Second General Army. Directly after the bombing he was taken to the Ninoshima Army Quarantine Station, where he died on August 7. A documentary entitled Konichi – Hangil – Nikkan Heigo no Kage ni (Anti-Japanese, in the Shadow of the Japan-Korea Annexation) (produced by Hidemi Matsunaga, televised on March 21, 1994 by RCC broadcasting) described his life.
14. The August 9 edition of the Chugoku Shimbun, the first to reach Hiroshima after the bombing, was an early edition printed by the Mainichi Newspapers Seibu Head Office in Moji City (now part of Kitakyushu City).
15. Umeno and Tajima. Genbaku Dai Ichi Go: Hiroshima no Kiroku Shashinshu (The First Atomic Bombing: A Photographic Record of Hiroshima). Asahi Press, 1952: pp. 86-88.
16. In a feature article entitled “Hiroshima no Kiroku” (Record of Hiroshima) of the March 11, 2004 edition of the Chugoku Shimbun, the word of Yoshito Matsushige was introduced; “It was my fate to live. That’s why I was able to take those photos.” He had to use the toilet while on the way to work, and the bomb dropped when he returned home again. After taking the five photos, he took his wife and badly injured niece and headed to Omishima Island, Ehime Prefecture, where his parents and eldest daughter had evacuated.
17. Photos Yoshito Matsushige took at the Miyuki Bridge were first published on page two of the July 6, 1946 edition of the Yukan Hiroshima (which was published by a separate company). In 1952, when the General Headquarters of the Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers (GHQ/SCAP) lifted their occupation of Japan, his photos were used in Hiroshima: Senso to Toshi (Hiroshima: War and the City) (Iwanami Shoten) and in the aforementioned Genbaku Dai Ichi Go: Hiroshima no Kiroku Shashinshu (The First Atomic Bombing: A Photographic Record of Hiroshima) as well as on page 19 of the September 29, 1952 edition of LIFE Magazine, saying, “published here for the first time in the U.S.” The same edition also featured a photo of the mushroom cloud taken from the entrance of the Mikumarikyo Gorge in Fucho-cho by Seiso Yamada, who worked for the Planning Division of the Chugoku Shimbun.
18. Chugoku Shimbun (2012). op. cit., p. 27. Testimony of Yachiyo Omoto, Kunso Yoshida’s younger sister. After the war, Yoshida worked as a member of town assembly in his hometown of Hatsukaichi-cho.
19. The top of page two of the August 22 Asahi Shimbun Seibu edition featured on-site reports by Kunso Yoshida, Eijiro Kishida (of the wire service department), and Masaaki Watanabe (who worked at the Fukuoka General Bureau and went to Nagasaki).
20. With preparations to establish the Second General Army, in February 1945, the Seibu Head Office was assigned to cover Hiroshima which the Osaka Head Office had been in charge of. The Asahi Shimbun Seibu Head Office. Asahi Shimbun Seibu Honsha Goju Nenshi (50-Year History of the Asahi Shimbun Seibu Head Office), Asahi Shimbun Seibu Head Office, 1985: p. 83.
21. Asahi Shimbun Seibu Honsha Hennenshi 4 (Chronicle of the Asahi Shimbun Seibu Head Office Vol. 4). Asahi Shimbun Shashi Henshushitsu, 1985: pp. 39-40.
22. The photos were posted in the August 11 Osaka edition of the Mainichi Newspapers showing the temporary prefectural government office situated in the Hiroshima Higashi Police Station in Shimoyanagi-cho (currently Kanayama-cho, Naka-ku) on August 7. Canned foods were being brought there, and female residents were receiving goods in front of a bomb shelter. Yukio Kunihira took 41 photos, which are owned by the Osaka Head Office.
23. Chugoku Shimbun Shashi Hensan Iinkai. op. cit., p. 168. Shuitsu Matsumura, chief of staff of the Chugoku Military District, sent a message through the military police, requesting that a “Verbal Reporting Corps”, consisting of the Chugoku Shimbun editing staff, be organized and make announcements issued by the Imperial Headquarters. Matsumura (later a member of the House of Councillors) does not mention about the Verbal Reporting Corps in his article entitled “Genbakuka no Hiroshima Shireibu – Sambocho no Kiroku” (Records of a Hiroshima Headquarters Chief of Staff after the Bomb). on p. 66 – 85 of the August 1951 edition of the Bungei Shunju.
24. Aforementioned Eijiro Kishida also joined the Verbal Reporting Corps. Looking back, he said, “The members of the Verbal Reporting Corps knew all too well that ‘Don’t worry’ we always mentioned at the end was just an attempt to make people feel better.” The Asahi Shimbun’s Hiroshima edition, August 5, 1987.
25. Hiroku Daitoa Senshi: Genbaku Kokunai Hen (Secret Records of the Greater East Asia War: Atomic Bombing in Japan). Fuji Shoen, 1953: p. 322.
26. In the 1969 interview, Masao Maruyama, a political scientist, reflected on the situation at the Army Marine Headquarters when the bomb dropped. He said, “I heard people call it pikadon, pikadon on August 8.” Tatsuo Hayashi, a reporter at the Chugoku Shimbun, recorded the interview, which was later published in “Maruyama Masao to Hiroshima” (Masao Maruyama and Hiroshima). IPSHU Kenkyu Hokoku Series No.25 (IPSHU Research Report Series (in Japanese), No. 25). Institute for Peace Science, Hiroshima University, 1998. Audio tapes are owned by his eldest daughter, Kaori Hayashi. See the March 4, 2013 edition of the Chugoku Shimbun.
27. Hiroshima Prefecture. Genbaku Sanju Nen (30 Years after the Atomic Bombing). Hiroshima Prefecture, 1976: p. 99.
28. Shirai, Hisao. Maboroshi no Koe: NHK Hiroshima Hachigatsu Muika (Phantom Voices: NHK Hiroshima, August 6). Iwanami Shoten, 1992: pp. 126-127. According to this book, the radio report on the attack on Hiroshima was repeated that evening between 18:00 and 21:00 without any explanation; however no surviving material on the report could be found at NHK.
29. The Asahi Shimbun Osaka edition featured “Nishinomiya and Hiroshima, serious damage by bomb” with a three-line headline, but the Tokyo edition reported on Hiroshima with only four lines in a single column, while there was no article at all in the Seibu edition.
30. The Chugoku Military District Headquarters made the following announcement at noon on August 7, earlier than the Imperial Headquarters’ announcement: “1. Four B29 bombers dropped a high-performance tracer bomb over the skies of Hiroshima City around 8:10, August 6. 2. Surface houses suffered considerable damage, but fires were mostly put out that same evening.” August 9, 1945 Seibu edition of the Asahi Shimbun.
31. Osaragi, Jiro. Osaragi Jiro Haisen Nikki (Diary on Losing the War by Jiro Osaragi). Soshisha, 1995: p. 296. Diary entry for August 7, Osaragi wrote, “Yoshiko said that the 7 o’clock news said something strange. The news mentioned that a new type of bomb was used and that countermeasures are under review.”
32. Branch office of the Cabinet Intelligence Bureau in the Domei News Agency. “(Hi) Tekisei Joho” (Confidential Information on Hostilities). In Hiroshima Prefecture. Hiroshima Kenshi: Genbaku Shiryo Hen (History of Hiroshima Prefecture: Resource Materials on the Atomic Bombing). 1972 a: p. 653.
33. Shimomura, Kainan. Shusenki (Record of the End of the War). Kamakura Bunko, 1948: pp. 97-98. His real name was Hiroshi Shimomura. He had worked as vice-president of the Asashi Shimbun, and president of Japan Broadcasting Association (current NHK), and at that time he was president of the Intelligence Bureau.
34. Osaragi, Jiro. Osaragi Jiro Haisen Nikki (A Diary on Losing the War by Jiro Osaragi). Soshisha, 1995: p. 297. Having read the August 8 morning paper that featured the announcement by the Imperial Headquarters, Osaragi wrote, “As usual, it was simple: just ‘small damage.’ The fact that a revolutionary new bomb has appeared in this war and that this is incomparable to the V-1 flying bomb is something that the people should remain unaware of.”
35. The August 12 edition of the Chugoku Shimbun (printed by the Asahi Shimbun Seibu Head Office) reported in Hiroshima on the protest made by the government. There is a photo of residents looking at the newspaper posted on the wall of the Sumitomo Bank Hiroshima Branch. The Photo was taken by Yotsugi Kawahara, a member of the photographic team of the Army Marine Headquarters.
36. The word “atomic bomb” was first used in Hiroshima on page two of the August 16 edition of the Chugoku Shimbun (printed by the Asahi Shimbun Seibu Head Office). While the headline read “A Violent, Cruel New Bomb,” the article mentions “This violent, cruel new atomic bomb has, in the end, reduced all our war efforts to ashes.”
37. Yoshio Nishina of the Institute of Physical and Chemical Research arrived in Hiroshima together with the Imperial Headquarters investigation team on August 8. At the Army-Navy joint meeting held at the Hiroshima Army Ordnance Supply Depot the party concluded: “It was an atomic bomb.” Niizuma, Seiichi. “Tokushu Bakudan Chosa Hokoku” (Investigative Report on Special Bombs). August 10, 1945. Collection of Hiroshima Memorial Peace Museum.
38. “Asada Tsunesaburo Memo” (Memorandum of Tsunesaburo Asada). In Hiroshima Prefecture (1972). op. cit., pp. 578-581. Tsunesaburo Asada, a professor at Osaka Imperial University, arrived in Hiroshima on August 10 as part of the Osaka naval investigation team.
39. Stockholm Special Dispatch of August 14 was not featured in the August 16 Tokyo edition of the Asahi Shimbun.
40. Featured in the August 21 Tokyo edition of the Asahi Shimbun, amongst others.
41. The line, “Nakata, member of the news team from Domei” was found in the aforementioned Asada Tsunesaburo Memo (Memorandum of Tsunesaburo Asada). Satsuo Nakata took at least 32 photos. His photos of the ruins of Hiroshima and of a cargo train that had derailed on the Kandagawa railway bridge on the Sanyo Line, as well as others, were used by various newspapers. An overview of events can be found in detail in the feature article of the Chugoku Shimbun September 24, 2006 titled “Hiroshima no Kiroku: Umoreteita Domei no Hodo Shashin” (Record of Hiroshima: Forgotten Domei news photos).
42. It was reported by the International News Service from New York that Harold Jacobson, who worked on the Manhattan Project to develop the atomic bomb, said, “Hiroshima will be a devastated area…for nearly three-quarters of a century.” See the August 8, 1945 edition of the Atlanta Constitution.
43. Agawa, Hiroyuki. Naki Hahaya (My Deceased Mother). Kodansha, 2007: p. 17. Agawa (a naval lieutenant at the time) was born in Hiroshima City and was in Hankou, Hubei Province, China when Japan lost the war. He remembers, “News from Japan for Japanese expatriates on Tairiku Shinpo as well as on Chinese and English newspapers all had big headlines that said that Hiroshima would be uninhabitable to living things for 75 years due to residual radioactivity.”
44. Ogura, Toyofumi. Zetsugo no Kiroku (Letters from the End of the World), 1948. Paperback edition, Chuokoron-sha, 1982: p. 196. Ogura, who was an associate professor at the Hiroshima University of Literature and Science, wrote a letter to his wife Fumiyo, who had died 13 days after the bombing. “I was secretly worried about the Hiroshima infertility theory, and I was especially nervous for the health of (our son) Kinji.”
45. Yamamoto, Akira. “Mune ni Moyuru – Anohi no Kimochi” (With a Fire in My Heart – My Feelings on That Day). Nihon Shimbun Kosha. Nihon Shimbunho. October 2, 1945 edition, Japan Newspaper Publishers & Editors Association.
46. According to aforementioned Chugoku Shimbun Hachiju Nenshi (Eighty Years’ History of the Chugoku Shimbun). p.171, it mentions that the Chugoku Shimbun printed its own newspaper for the first time after the bombing on August 31. Kunio Yanagita’s Kuhaku no Tenkizu (Void of the Weather Charts) (Shinchosha, 1975, p. 155) also says that finally from August 31 onwards, the Chugoku Shimbun was able to publish its newspapers on its own. However, the August 31 edition, archived in the form of microfilms at Chugoku Shimbun and the Hiroshima City Central Library, was actually printed by the Asahi Shimbun Seibu Head Office. Chugoku Shimbun Hyaku Nenshi (100 Years’ History of the Chugoku Shimbun) (Chugoku Shimbun, 1992, p. 200) mentions that the first paper was printed on the September 3.
47. James C. McNaughton, Nisei Linguists: Japanese Americans in the Military Intelligence Service during World War II. Washington DC., Department of the Army, 2006: p. 436. According to this book, Thomas Sakamoto, who was in the Military Intelligence Service (MIS), escorted a group of American correspondents to Hiroshima. The book says this was “9 September” but the correspondents visited Hiroshima on September 3 on a day trip.
48. Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Japan, 20 Years of History: 1945-1965. Tokyo. Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Japan, 1965: pp. 14-16. The book introduced the entire article by Leslie Nakashima as the first report from Hiroshima sent to Western countries. It was also mentioned in the book that TIME Magazine quoted the special dispatch in the summer of 1945. Part of his article was quoted on page 58 of the September 10 edition of TIME Magazine.
49. Osako, Ichiro. op. cit, pp. 224-225. Osako wrote what it was like to meet the American correspondents, saying, “Compared to their nice clothes and Eyemo, we wore shabby national uniforms, rubber-soled cloth footgear and gaiters. No one had a camera.”
50. The article by W.H. Lawrence starts with “Hiroshima, Japan, Sept. 3 (Delayed)” was featured on pages one and four.
51. Even research papers treat Wilfred Burchett’s article as the first on-site report on Hiroshima for overseas, but Leslie Nakashima’s report was featured earlier. It is seen as having become entrenched after the introduction of Burchett’s article on Imahori, Seiji’s Gensuibaku Jidai: Gendaishi no Shogen (Jo) (The Age of Atomic and Hydrogen Bombs: A Testimony of Modern History, Vol. 1). San-ichi Shobo, 1959. On p. 143 of his book, he writes that it was the first report on the atomic bombing written by a reporter for the Allied Forces but makes no reference to Nakashima’s article. The Daily Express September 5 edition is archived at the Hiroshima Prefectural Archives.
52. FIRST PICTURES INSIDE BOMB BLASTED JAPAN 1945. The film taken by a cameraman among the U.S. correspondents who arrived in Hiroshima on September 3 was used by the United News newsreel. The narration says, “Hiroshima … a city of three hundred and forty thousand people burned to earth. As far as the eye can see, stretches scenes of desolation and ruin, four square miles leveled by one bomb, the product of a live science and the climactic answer to the aggression let loose upon the world by Japan. … There was no direct hit, no gaping crater, exploding in the air above this former Japanese army deployment center, the first of two atomic bombs used against Japan, caused this area of destruction, only a few isolated structures still standing. …” The United States National Archives and
Records collection. ARC Identifier 39080/Local Identifier 208-UN-172.
53. Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum. Miyatake Hajime, Matsumoto Eiichi – Shashinten – Hibaku Chokugo no Hiroshima o Toru (“An Exhibition of Photographs by Hajime Miyatake and Eiichi Matsumoto―Hiroshima after the Atomic Bombing”). (An exhibition catalog). Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum, 2006: p. 3. Miyatake took 121 photos. Later, the August 6, 1952 edition of the Asahi Graph ran four of his photos with the caption “First Exposé of A-bomb Damage,” but two photos, of a boy receiving medical treatment and a seriously injured soldier, had already been featured in the September 4, 1945 Osaka edition of the Asahi Shimbun. They were not featured in the Tokyo edition. Nishimoto, Masami. “Genbaku Kiroku Shashin – Umoreta Shijitsu o Kensho Suru” (Images of the Atomic Bombing – Verifying Obscure Historical Facts). Hiroshima Heiwa Kinen Shiryokan Shiryo Chosa Kenkyukai Kenkyu Hokoku No. 4. 2008: p. 7.
54. Sasamoto, Yukuo. Beigun Senryoka no Genbaku Chosa (Investigating the Atomic Bombing under American Military Occupation). Shinkansha, 1995: p. 52.
55. Atlanta Constitution, August 8, 1945 edition.
56. New York Times, August 9 edition.
57. Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Japan. op. cit, pp. 14-16.
58. “Warnings that people would take sick from the effects of uranium, which had seeped into the ground, kept people away from the destroyed area.” “Thousands of middle school boys and girls were accordingly victims and the number of those missing is astounding.” Descriptions of acute radiation sickness and noncombatant victims were erased. “United States scientists say the atomic bomb will not Shimomura. He had worked as vice-president of the Asahi Shimbun, and president of the Japan Broadcasting Association (current NHK), have lingering after-effects in a devastated area” was added, something that was not in the original. New York Times, August 31 edition. Leslie Nakashima’s life was covered in “Hiroshima Daden Ichigo” (First News Dispatch from Hiroshima), an article on page one and the feature article of the October 5, 2000 edition and a special running story from October 6-12, 2000 editions of the Chugoku Shimbun.
59. Marcel Junod, head of the delegation of the International Committee of the Red Cross to Japan brought some 15 tons of medical supplies with him as he arrived at Hiroshima.
60. Among the photos taken in mid-October by photographer Shunkichi Kikuchi, there is an image of an acupuncture and moxibustion clinic with a caption saying, “Acupuncture for A-bomb diseases.” Kikuchi was in charge of stills in the documentary film produced by Nippon Eigasha, which accompanied the Special Committee for the Investigation of A-bomb Damages, formed by the Ministry of Education.
61. Koyama, Ayao. “Watashi to Genbaku” (The Atomic Bombing and I). Hiroshimashi Ishikai Dayori, August 1981, the special feature on “The Atomic Bombing and I.” Koyama, who was a doctor at the Hiroshima Communications Hospital, wrote that patients who had passed blood dozens of times were not believed to have anything by dysentery and were quarantined.
62. New York Times, September 13, 1945 edition.
63. Publication of the Tokyo and the Seibu editions of the Asahi Shimbun was suspended, but the September 19 and 20 the Osaka editions were published featuring the same article.
64. Yamamoto, Taketoshi. GHQ no Kenetsu, Choho, Senden Kosaku (Censorship, Intelligence, and Propaganda Efforts of GHQ). Iwanami Shoten, 2013: p. 63. “On October 8 a team of censors occupied the Hibiya Municipal Research Building, and all major newspapers and news agencies in Tokyo were censored by the Newspaper and News Agency Department.
65. With the Makurazaki Typhoon, which killed 2,012 people in Hiroshima Prefecture alone, striking on September 17, 1945, the Chugoku Shimbun suspended publication from September 18 due to damage to its Nukushina printing plant. For a time, the paper was once again printed by the Asahi Shimbun Osaka headquarters instead. Then, on November 5, the Chugoku Shimbun began printing and publishing again, when the company returned to the head office in the burned-down city. Yamamoto, Akira. Shinrai (Trust). Chugoku Shimbun, 2012: pp. 85-94.
66. Ariyama, Teruo. “Senryogun Kenetsu Taisei no Seiritsu – Senryoki Mediashi Kenkyu” (The establishment of the Occupation Forces Censorship System – Research into the History of Media during the Occupation). Seijo University Faculty of Arts and Literature. Communication Kiyo. March 1994: p. 44.
67. Chugoku Shimbun Shashi Hensan Iinkai. op. cit., p. 185. The Chugoku Shimbun was commissioned to print the Yukan Hiroshima and dispatched 31 employees to do so. On December 1, 1948, the Yukan Hiroshima was renamed the Yukan Chugoku, on October 1, 1950, the Yukan Chugoku Shimbun; and finally on October 1, 1952 it became the evening edition of the Chugoku Shimbun.
68. June 27, 1946 edition of the Chugoku Shimbun. Sponsored by the head office, it solicited essays for the one-year anniversary of the atomic bombing, for which it received 171 submissions. The first prize was Sankichi Toge’s “1965 Nen no Hiroshima” (Hiroshima in 1965) which was Featured for three days in the August 2 – 4 editions. Later, Toge became known for his Genbaku Shishu (Poems of the Atomic Bombing).
69. On August 5, together with the Hiroshima Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the Hiroshima Prefecture Trade Association, the Chugoku Shimbun held the Chugoku Regional Trade and Industry Exposition at the chamber of commerce and industry building. The Chugoku Shimbun also held Hiroshima Prefecture Bon Odori Dance Festival at Shintenchi Plaza on the evening of August 6.
70. MacArthur’s message said that the suffering of that fateful day would serve as a warning to all peoples. City of Hiroshima. Hiroshima Shinshi: Shiryo II (History of Postwar Hiroshima: Resource Materials Vol. II). City of Hiroshima, 1982: p. 401.
71. Lisa Yoneyama noted that GHQ supported the reconstruction of Hiroshima because they “determined that their interests would be furthered.” “Their interests” were to show that “use of the bomb was unavoidable if the war was to end” “by connecting the atomic bomb to the idea of peace.” Yoneyama, Lisa. Hiroshima Traces: Time, Space and the Dialectics of Memory. University of California, 1999. (Ozawa, Hiroaki. et. al., trans., Hiroshima – Kioku no Poritikusu. Iwanami Shoten, 2005: p. 28.)
72. Chugoku Shimbun Shashi Hensan Iinkai. op. cit., p. 176.
73. Matsue, Kiyoshi. Hiroshima no Genten e (To the Origin of Hiroshima). Shakaihyoronsha, 1995: pp. 137-138. “The declaration adopted at the Hiroshima Congress of Partisans for Peace was the first request from Hiroshima and Japan to abolish atomic bombs.” Matsue had planned the conference and worked as one of the chairmen, was in charge of editorials at the Chugoku Shimbun, as well as the president of the Hiroshima Prefecture Labor Union Council.
74. Featured three photos including two photos taken at the Miyuki Bridge by Matsushige and one photo of the mushroom cloud by Seiso Y amada.
75. Yamamoto, Taketoshi. op. cit., p. 86.
76. Japan Newspaper Publishers & Editors Association. Shimbun Kyokaiho. July 31, 1950 edition. Their dismissal was based on MacArthur’s letter ordering Prime Minister Shigeru Yoshida to indefinitely suspend publication of the Communist Party newspaper
Akahata from July 18.
77. The total number of people dismissed from newspapers, news agencies, and broadcasters was 704 at 50 companies. Kajitani, Yoshihisa. Reddo Paji (Red Purge). Tosho Shuppansha, 1980: p. 75 and others.
78. Yamamoto, Akira. op. cit., pp. 109-112. The executive director of the Japan Newspaper Publishers & Editors Association visited Hiroshima and explained that dismissals due to the Red Purge were “outside the realm of Japanese law.”
79. Ubuki, Satoru. Heiwa Kinen Shikiten no Ayumi (History of Peace Memorial Ceremonies). Hiroshima Peace Culture Foundation, 1992: pp. 22-23.
80. Twenty four U.S. military aviators participated, invited by the Chugoku Shimbun, Hiroshima Prefecture, and the City of Hiroshima. They were accompanied by a television crew from CBS. August 7, 1951 edition of the Chugoku Shimbun.
81. The August 6, 1952 edition of the Asahi Graph sold a total of 700,000 copies over four reprints. Asahi Shimbun Shashi: Showa Sengo Hen (History of the Asahi Shimbun: Postwar Showa Period), Asahi Shimbun, 1994: p. 155. The name of the photographer was not clearly stated, but at the top were photos taken by Masami Onuka, who was a member of the photographic team of the Army Marine Headquarters. He headed to Ninoshima Island the day after the bombing and took photographs. A photograph of a soldiers and another photograph of a woman, showing burns covering their bodies were featured in the Asahi Graph, on the top page.
82. Aforementioned books Hiroshima: Senso to Toshi (Hiroshima: War and the City) and Genbaku Dai Ichi Go: Hiroshima no Kiroku Shashinshu (The First Atomic Bombing: A Photographic Record of Hiroshima) featured photos by Yoshito Matsushige, Masami Onuka, Shigeo Hayashi and Shunkichi Kikuchi. Hayashi and Kikuchi were in charge of stills in the documentary film on the atomic bombing by Nippon Eigasha.
83. The August 1952 edition of Sekai featured “Hiroshima kara Kita Musumetachi” (The Girls who Came from Hiroshima) by Yoko Ota. Fujin Koron (the August 1952 edition) featured “Genbaku no Musumetachi o Sukue” (Save the Girls of the Atomic Bombing) by Kojiro Serizawa.
84. The November 1952 special issue of Kaizo carried the report by the physicist Mitsuo Taketani, “Ikinokotta Juni-mannin” (120,000 Survivors) as a top article.
85. Following the movie, Children of Hiroshima, based on Genbaku no Ko: Hiroshima no Shonen Shojo no Uttae (Children of the A-Bomb: Testament of the Boys and Girls of Hiroshima), edited by Arata Osada and published from Iwanami Shoten in 1951, Hedeo Sekikawa directed Hiroshima in 1953. Both films were released overseas and were a means of telling the world about the horrors of the atomic bombing. Hiroshima Prefecture (1986). op. cit., p. 214.
86. Five students who had lost their parents to the atomic bombing unveiled the Atomic Bomb Cenotaph, which was erected in Peace Memorial Park at the August 6, 1952 Peace Memorial Ceremony. Chugoku Shimbun. Kensho Hiroshima (History of Hiroshima). Chugoku Shimbun, 1995: p. 41.
87. “8.6 Sekai Taikai Junbi Nyusu (Sekai Taikai Saishu Hokoku)” (News on Preparations for the 8/6 World Conference [Final Report of the World Conference]). In Gensuibaku Kinshi Undo Shiryoshu Dai Ni Kan (Reference Material on the Movement against Atomic and Hydrogen Bombs, Vol. 2), Ryokuin Shobo, 1995: pp. 364-365.
88. According to the September 1, 1962 edition of the Chugoku Shimbun Shaho (Chugoku Shimbun Company Newsletter), there was an unwritten rule that the political department of the Chugoku Shimbun was in charge of planning A-bomb-related articles. But with a Hiroshima gubernatorial election followed by the House of Councillors election, the political department was too busy, and the social department took on that role. Yoshio Asano, who was in charge of the series titled “Hiroshima no Shogen” (Testimonies of Hiroshima), saw the lack of a large-scale plan to take up the issue of the atomic bombing because its scars and shadows were so familiar to those in the company that people were not surprised or impressed by what they were witnessing. Asano himself was exposed to the atomic bombing in the summer of his second year at Hiroshima Second Middle School (current Hiroshima Prefectural Hiroshima Kanon High School) but he had never spoken on his experiences. He said that he had visited one venue more than 10 times to write an article. As the articles were based on thorough research, the series got a hugely positive response from the readers. When “Hiroshima Orizuru no Kai” (Hiroshima Paper Crane Club) called for sending the series of articles to peace organizations around the country, the club received some 10,000 old newspapers and clippings. August 27, 1962 edition of the Chugoku Shimbun.
89. Toshihiro Kanai created the Hiroshima Society for the Research of Atomic Bomb Materials in 1968, and the society published Vol. 1-3 of Genbaku Hisai Shiryo Somokuroku (Comprehensive Record of Information about the A-bomb Damage). He also wrote Kakukenryoku: Hiroshima no Kokuhatsu (Nuclear Might: Accusations from Hiroshima), Sanseido, 1970.
90. Takashi Hiraoka (Hiroshima Mayor from 1991-1999), who wrote “Honoo no Keifu” (Journey from the Fire), said that Toshihiro Kanai and Toru Kanei played major roles in the formation of the Chugoku Shimbun’s atomic-bombing and peace-related coverage. Kanei was in charge of “Hiroshima no Shogen” (Testimonies of Hiroshima) as general news editor and “Hiroshima Niju Nen” (20 Years after the Bombing) as associate editor. In November 1965, during his years as a general news reporter, Hiraoka visited Korea just after the restoration of diplomatic ties, and ran a serial (ten times) between November 25 and December 4, titled “Tonari no Kuni Kankoku” (South Korea, Our Neighbor). He pointed out the need to support neglected A-bomb survivors in Korea, saying, “When we consider Hiroshima together with Korea, we must recognize the problems of the Japanese people.” The issue that Hiraoka raised almost half a century ago is not limited to the Japanese colonial rule or war responsibility; his serious question is still applicable to today’s media as well as to the successive governments that have continued to take vague attitudes toward nuclear disarmament while saying that Japan is “the only country to have been attacked with atomic bombs.”
91. Chugoku Shimbun, September 11, 1965 edition.
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