Kiyomi Kono

Though I don’t remember clearly, schools reopened around September.  At that time, we had neither textbooks nor notebooks.  Students visited graduates to get old textbooks.  Those textbooks were made from low quality paper like newspapers, and we painted black the parts which were unsuitable for new democratic education.  Because there were not enough teachers, many substitute teachers were employed.

Though there were not enough textbooks, teachers and other things, the atmosphere of schools completely changed.  Before that time, all the girls had to braid their long hair.  After the war, we could choose our hairstyle whatever we wanted.  Before the end of war, when we arrived at school we were forced to bow in front of a small building called Hoan-den in which the Emperor and Empress’s photos were enshrined, but not anymore.  When we heard the word “Emperor” while the headteacher or a teacher was speaking, they said to us “Attention!” and we had to stand up straight, but not anymore.  And the government censored books and magazines to read, movies to watch, but not anymore.  I don’t know why, but after the war, there were so many talent shows at schools and local areas, perhaps because of lack of entertainment.

During the war, I sometimes went to a movie theater with my friends, though it was banned.  When the movie finished and lights were lit, we hid under the seats, trying not to be found by teachers who patrolled.  We left the theater after everybody had gone.

On September 17, a very strong typhoon called Makurazaki typhoon hit Hiroshima prefecture and did huge damage.  The Geibi line I used to go to Mukaihara Girls’ School stopped because of river floods for about a month, so I had to walk 12km every day to go to school and back home.  Sometimes I arrived at school around noon.  While there was no train service, I saw many discharged soldiers walking along the railway to get home. 

Mukaihra National School near our school was partly used as an Army Hospital.  About 1000 soldiers who were wounded by the A-bombing lay on straw mats on the floor.  We went to school to help deliver rice balls to them and make bandages from torn Yukata cloth, doing laundry.  Village people collected wood to burn bodies.  One day, from the school window I saw an insane nurse going up and down the stairs all day long.