Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum Special Exhibition

Hiroshima War Orphans
Foster Home—Children and Gishin Yamashita—

Hiroshima War Orphans Foster Home when it was initially established

Period March 24, 2023 – September 11, 2023
Place

Special Exhibition Room, East Building 1F,
Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum

Introduction
The atomic bombing deprived many children of their families. In December 1945, the Hiroshima War Orphans Foster Home wasestablished in Itsukaichi Town, Saeki County, on the outskirts of the city of Hiroshima, ahead of other facilities that were set up one after
another after the war to raise the orphaned children. Gishin Yamashita (1894-1989), the first director of the foster home, invested his own
funds to establish the facility; he was engaged in the operation of the foster home and raising orphans.
Later, as a member of the Diet from Hiroshima Prefecture, Gishin Yamashita energetically introduced legislation mainly focusing on
improving social welfare. Above all, he made an outstanding contribution to provide compensation for mobilized students who became
victims of the war as well as to draft the A-bomb Survivors Medical Care Law.
This exhibition describes the history of the Hiroshima War Orphans Foster Home and the life of Gishin Yamashita, primarilyexhibiting materials that were donated by the Yamashita family in 2018.

1. Evacuation of Schoolchildren and the Atomic Bombing
As the full-scale air raids by the U.S. Military on the Japanese mainland intensified, schoolchildren in the city of Hiroshima became thesubject of group evacuations. Starting in April 1945, evacuations of schoolchildren to rural areas within the prefecture began. On August 6,
1945, while many children were living in groups at different evacuation sites, the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima.

Children leaving for their evacuation site
April 1945 Courtesy of Hakushima Elementary SchoolChildren left for their evacuation sites by train or other means while being seen
off by their family members reluctant to part. They carried rucksacks and bags,
which contained lunch boxes if necessary; their families made boxed lunches forthem with love, thinking that it might be the last chance to do so. This photoshows children from Hakushima Elementary School as they head to theirevacuation site.

Children gathering at a temple at their evacuation site
April 1945 Suzuhari Village, Asa County Chokakuji Temple
Courtesy of Hakushima Elementary School
Upon arrival at the evacuation site, the supervising teachers andchildren were greeted by the local people. Sometimes children
were served rice balls covered with sweet red bean paste called“ohagi,” and they happily ate something they rarely had achance to eat due to the food shortage. They lodged at local
temples and community centers, and attended the local
elementary school.

Clearing bamboo
April to September 1945 Mirasaka Town, Futami CountyCourtesy of Yozo Umeno
To supplement the food shortages, children would use hoes and cultivate landfor planting. This photo shows children from Nakajima Elementary School atwork. To support the war effort, increasing food production in rural areas wasencouraged. Therefore, evacuated children helped plant rice, harvest wheat, clear
weeds from rice paddies, and so on.
2A letter from a mother to a child evacuee
June 12, 1945 Donated by Yoshio Onishi(Excerpt)“Dear Yoshio,Today, it was suddenly decided thatFather, as a caretaker, would visit yourresidence and school, and go to thevillage office to extend greetings. The
whole family is excited about that. I’msure he will be happy to see you in good
health and hear your voice again. I can’t
wait to hear from Father about his visit
with you…”

Daily logs written after the atomic
bombing
August 6 and 7, 1945
Donated by Genso Ota
These are the daily logs of August 6 and 7,
written by a supervising teacher fromMisasa Elementary School. The entry of the7th says that everyone was so depressed withworry about the air raid on Hiroshima thatthey could hardly sleep.

Children crying at the sight of the burning sky of Hiroshima
August 6, 1945 Obayashi Village, Asa County Obayashi Temple
Drawn by Yoshiko Yoneo (10 years old at the time of the bombing, 39 years old at the time of drawing)
Yoshiko Yoneo, who drew this picture, was a student at Hakushima Elementary School. She had
been evacuated in a group to Obayashi Village, Asa County.

*Some part of the images are processed.

Sea of ruins
August 11 to 17, 1945
400 m from the hypocenter Takajo-machi
Photo by and courtesy of Kanzo Ohashi
This photo was taken toward the west fromTakajo-machi. The area covered the school districtsof Honkawa Elementary School and Hirose
Elementary School.
32. Hiroshima War Orphans Foster Home and Its Founder, Gishin Yamashita
Two days after the atomic bombing, a lost children’s center was set up in Hijiyama Elementary School in the city of Hiroshima forchildren who had lost their families due to the atomic bombing and had no relatives to depend on. Discharged from the Goto Islands ofNagasaki where he had served in September 1945, Gishin Yamashita visited the lost children’s center and witnessed the pitiful conditionof children who were losing their lives due to the damage caused by the atomic bombing and serious shortage of food.
In December 1945, Yamashita established the Hiroshima War Orphans Foster Home at his own expense. In addition to the children
from the lost children’s center, he also took in children who lost their parents in the atomic bombing and remained at their evacuationsites, and raised them at the foster home.

Gishin Yamashita, the founder

Gishin Yamashita
Courtesy of the Yamashita Family

Gishin Yamashita was born as the oldest son of a wealthy family
running a kimono fabric shop in Kure City. Yamashita took over thefamily business; however, his family business got into financial
trouble due to the Great Depression starting in 1929. At one time, it
became difficult for him to even provide for his family. Strongly
urged by his mother, a devout believer in Buddhism, Yamashita
started to study Buddhism, and after turning 40, he took a new roadin life as a Buddhist priest.
During the war, Yamashita enlisted in the military. He wasinformed of the dropping of the atomic bomb on Fukue Island, oneof the Goto Islands of Nagasaki, where he served till the end of thewar. Reflecting on his past conduct, Yamashita decided to devotehimself to provide relief to every victim of war, then returned toHiroshima in the middle of September.
“Pledge to save war victims” August 27, 1945
Yamashita’s determination to provide relief toevery victim of war is stated.

Hiroshima War Orphans Foster Home
Learning about the miserable condition of the lost children’s center on Hijiyama Hill, Yamashita directly
contacted the governor of Hiroshima with request to use a prefectural building in Itsukaichi for relievingorphans. As a result, Yamashita received an answer saying that he was allowed to rent the prefectural landand building although no financial support would be provided. Yamashita embarked on the relief oforphans by himself.
The name “Hiroshima War Orphans Foster Home” was given by Yamashita who wished to raise theorphaned children as if they had been raised by their own parents at home. Supported by his family’s
understanding and collaborators, Yamashita developed the facilities, using his own fund.
Starting on December 23, 1945, roughly 30 children from the lost children’s center on Hijiyama Hill,roughly 20 children from the evacuation sites, and other children who had nowhere to go were taken in
to the foster home. In March 1946, the following year, roughly 60 children between 3 and 16 years of age
were taken in to the facility.

Nameplate on the foster home’s gatepost

Mealtime
When the foster home was initially established, it didn’t have a large room; the children weredivided into two groups to have meals separately. Beginning from May 1946, “family dinnerday” was provided several times per month, giving them opportunities to have meals at around table. In the fall of the same year, the new dining room was built. They made various
efforts so that they could have meals in a more family-like atmosphere; they put tablecloths
and changed aluminum dinnerware to ceramic.
4Education

Doshinji Temple

When the foster home was initially established, a separate classroom ofNobori-cho Elementary School was opened in the facility. Teachers
sent from the school mainly educated the children. This educational
measure was continuously taken until March 1948, and then children
started to commute to neighboring schools.

For children who were longing for their parents, Yamashita renovated abuilding in the premises of the foster home in a Buddhist style and named it“Hikari-ga-oka Doshinji (Child’s Mind Temple on the Hill of Light).” In thetemple’s main hall, morning services were held every day. In addition,
Buddhist alters were set up in every resident, and a memorial service was heldon the 6th of every month.

Visit of the emperor
In December 7, 1947, during the Emperor
Showa’s visit to Hiroshima, Gishin Yamashita
had an opportunity to meet the emperor, whogot off the car near the foster home on hisway from Miyajima Island to the center of thecity of Hiroshima. Although the time wasquite limited, Director Yamashita introducedboy monks to the emperor and gave a brief
introduction about the foster home, showing
a boy’s scar on his head.

Daily logs of the foster home
The foster home maintained sectoral business logs such as cooking, sanitation, clothing, education, andgeneral affairs, as well as a nursing log, which was later renamed as “family log” in 1948.
5LARA aid supplied to the foster home
In addition to support from the government, the foster homealso received donations and relief supplies from a number ofpeople both at home and abroad. Various groups, including
youth organizations and women’s associations, andindividuals also offered labor services. In particular, theLicensed Agencies for Relief in Asia (LARA), mainly
consisting of religious organizations in the U.S., continuously
sent relief supplies, so called LARA aid supplies, to the foster
home until 1952, and bolstered the livelihood of the children
living in the foster home.

Moral adoption
Following the proposal by Norman Cousins, an American critic who visited
Hiroshima in August 1949, and others, a support program for atomic-bomb orphans
was initiated. The moral adoption, a system in which people living in the U.S. would
become “moral parents” of the orphans in Hiroshima and provide them with moral
support and financial aid, was firstly introduced to the children living in the foster
home. This program was later expanded to include other foster care institutions andwas continued until the children became grown-ups.

Letter from a foster home child to their moral
parentDonated by James Key and Brinkley Burks Pound*Some part of the images are processed.

6

Books from a moral parent in the U.S.

Relief supplies from the U.S.

Donated by Masaaki Ueda

Donated by Ninoshima Gakuen

3. Gishin Yamashita’s Activity as a Politician
While managing the foster home as its director, in April 1947, Gishin Yamashita ran for the first postwar House of Councillors in order toachieve his postwar resolution to provide relief to all war victims and was elected.
He served two terms (12 years) in the National Diet as a member of the Committee on Health and Welfare, one of the Diet’s standing
committees, and then as its chairperson, and engaged in the establishment of various legal systems concerning social welfare in postwar
Japan.
In particular, he prepared the first draft for the subsequent A-bomb Survivors Medical Care Law, and played a significant role as abridge between the central and local governments as a member of the Diet from Hiroshima Prefecture.

Gishin Yamashita listening to requests at a meeting of a widows organization inKure with bureaucrats
Summer 1950 Courtesy of the Yamashita family

Gishin Yamashita making representations at the Ministry of Health and Welfare
January 1959 Courtesy of the Chugoku Shimbun(Excerpt)“The medical treatment of
atomic-bomb disease patients shallbe provided at the expense of thegovernment.
Since the following specificities arerecognized in patients with theatomic-bomb disease, it isreasonable to assume that all
medical treatment for these patientsbe paid for by the government.”“From a political viewpoint, theatomic-bomb disease is aconsequence of war, which wascarried out by the government, so it
should take over the responsibility
for the treatment.”

Proposal of Gishin Yamashita, the Social Democratic Party of Japan: the outline of a bill on Relief ofAtomic-bomb Disease Patients
August 16, 1956 Documents relating to the Hiroshima Prefecture Federation of A-bomb Victims Associations
Collection of the Hiroshima University Archives
Prior to the enactment of the “A-bomb Survivors Medical Care Law (1957),” Yamashita presented the outline of a bill as a proposalof the Socialist Party in August 1956, calling for the government to take responsibility for the treatment of the atomic-bomb diseasebecause it was a consequent of the war caused by the government and their peculiar symptoms would continue for a long time.
7Conclusion
The Hiroshima War Orphans Foster Home founded by Gishin Yamashita accepted a totalof roughly 170 children until 1953, when the operation of the foster home was transferredto the City of Hiroshima. Although many of the children who had lived at the foster home
did not tell the fact that they had lived there even to their family members, they would attimes hold gatherings to look back upon that time.
Gishin Yamashita stepped down from the management of the facility, and in 1959, healso retired from politics. However, he remained concerned about the future lives of thefoster home’s children. His encouragement and support were continuously given to themfor the rest of his life. Later in his life, Gishin Yamashita had carefully preserved the records
and materials on the former foster home, and compiled Ikusei no Jakkan no Kiroku (Piece ofEducation Record), which describes the history of the foster home from its establishment. Itis regarded as a valuable record vividly depicting how children, who lost their parents in theatomic bombing, and adults, who took care of them, survived during the period ofconfusion after the war.

Ikusei no Jakkan no Kiroku, Chapter 1

Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum Special Exhibition
Hiroshima War Orphans Foster Home: Children and Gishin Yamashita
Period March 24, 2023 – September 11, 2023
Place

Special Exhibition Room, East Building 1F, Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum
Curatorial Division, Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum
1-2, Nakajima-cho, Naka-ku, Hiroshima, JAPAN 730-0811
TEL +81-82-241-4004

FAX +81-82-542-7941

https://hpmmuseum.jp/*All materials relevant to the foster home are from the Gishin Yamashita Materials (Donated by Akira Yamashita)