TOMA Miyoko

Miyoko, or “Miyo-chan” as she was affectionately known, was a third-year student at Shiroyama Elementary School at the time of the nuclear bombing.

Her mother had died giving birth to her in February 1937, and the newborn Miyoko was temporarily placed in an infant home.

Growing up, she often played at the home of her cousin Saito Takeo, one year her junior, who lived in Nagasaki’s Shiroyama neighbourhood. The pair were as close as siblings, sometimes running and hiding gleefully when Miyoko’s father, Tomio, came to pick her up.

Tomio eventually remarried, and Miyoko gained a younger half-sister, Reiko.

In the spring of 1945, just months before the nuclear bombing, the family moved from central Nagasaki to the Shiroyama neighbourhood, possibly due to forced building demolitions as the city created firebreaks to mitigate damage from potential firebombing.

At the time, Shiroyama – slightly removed from central Nagasaki and the industrial facilities near the bay – was considered relatively safe from air raids. However, the move brought Miyoko and her family much closer to what would become the nuclear bomb’s hypocentre.

Miyoko transferred into Shiroyama Elementary School, where she became schoolmates with Takeo for a few brief months.

In July 1945, the month before the nuclear bombing, most of Takeo’s immediate family evacuated from Nagasaki to Takeo’s father’s hometown in Miyazaki Prefecture. Takeo could not remember the final time he saw Miyo-chan, a lasting regret.

At the time of the nuclear bombing, Miyoko was at home with her step-mother, Oai – who was pregnant – and Reiko. All of them were killed. A relative later found their bones in the ruins of their home.

Takeo’s family returned to Nagasaki in 1947. His elder brother, 14-year-old Kin’ichiro, had also been killed in the bombing. Mobilised to work at a shipyard, he had been unable to leave Nagasaki with his family. His remains were never found.

In his forties, Takeo began researching the Shiroyama neighbourhood and what happened there during the nuclear bombing, as well as life prior. Where possible, he mapped where his former schoolmates had lived, but in some cases he was never able to find traces of them.

Although school was not in session at the time of the attack, over 1,400 of the 1,500 students enrolled at Shiroyama Elementary School were killed by the nuclear bombing. Many lived in the surrounding neighbourhood. The school itself was roughly 500 metres from the hypocentre.

Based on information provided by SAITO Takeo, cousin, and SASAKI Ryo, Nagasaki Shimbun.