IKEMOTO Toru

At the time of the nuclear bombing, Toru was seven years old and his sister Aiko was nine. Both were in a wooden building about 1 kilometre from the hypocentre, where they were exposed to ionising radiation.

Soon after, “black rain” fell on the city, from which they received a further dose of radiation.

Within four or five days of the attack, their hair began falling out. Aiko lost her appetite and developed a fever, bleeding gums and other symptoms of acute radiation sickness.

Although the two siblings recovered from the acute stage of their illness, they ultimately succumbed to the delayed effects of radiation.

In the spring of 1949, when Toru was a sixth-grade student, he collapsed upon returning home from a school field trip. He died at 11 years of age, four years after the bombing, and Aiko died at 29 years of age.

A photo of the brother and sister taken at the Hiroshima Red Cross Hospital two months after the attack, their faces forlorn, is on permanent display at the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum.