93-yr-old man pays tribute to classmates lost to 1945 Nagasaki A-bomb

The Mainichi

4 days ago

NAGASAKI -- As the 80th anniversary of the U.S. atomic bombing of Nagasaki approaches, a 93-year-old survivor has reflected on his classmates who lost their lives just four months after entering junior high school while preparing for this summer's memorial ceremony.
The estimated death toll from the atomic bombing on Aug. 9, 1945, to the end of that year is about 70,000. However, due to the loss of administrative records and cases where entire families were killed, these figures are only estimates.
"There were classmates I had played with just days before the bombing. Even now, when I see their names, their faces come to mind," says Kazuo Maruta, who was 13 and a first-year student at the former Nagasaki Prefectural Keiho Junior High School when he was exposed to the radiation from the atomic bombing. With tears in his eyes, he holds a list of the names of 299 first-year students, recording their circumstances after the bombing, including instant death and other causes of death. Of these, 114 were victims of the atomic bombing. This list was created by their homeroom teacher shortly after the bombing and has been carefully preserved by Maruta.
On the day of the bombing, the young Maruta had returned home around 10:50 a.m. after finishing his English final exam. While wiping sweat from his bare upper body, he heard the sound of a B-29 bomber and was then struck by a blue-white flash. He was about 1.3 kilometers south of the hypocenter. It felt like his entire body was being dragged through a pitch-dark tunnel. When he regained consciousness, he found himself trapped under his house, hearing someone outside shouting, "There's a fire!" He managed to escape, only to find glass embedded in his back, leaving him covered in blood.
He learned from a neighbor that his mother, Matsue, had died instantly while talking in front of a neighbor's house. Two years after losing his father to illness, he lost his mother as well.
Maruta fled to the hillside behind his house, where he was drenched by heavy black rain. That night, diarrhea set in, and by morning, he realized he had bloody stools. An uncle he met by chance helped him evacuate to the city of Isahaya, about 20 kilometers away, by train on Aug. 11. At a first aid station set up at an elementary school, a doctor, unaware of acute radiation syndrome, diagnosed him with "dysentery" upon seeing the bloody stools. After treatment at a hospital, he returned to school in November.
The school building of Keiho Junior High, located about 800 meters south of the hypocenter, was completely destroyed. Of the approximately 1,200 students, around 400 perished, including Maruta's classmates and higher-grade students who had been mobilized to work in military factories.
After the war, Maruta graduated from high school and became a police officer. About 30 years ago, upon retirement, he began sharing his experiences as a hibakusha, or an A-bomb survivor. This year, at 93, he has already given over 20 talks to groups including students on school trips. "Losing my classmates just four months after starting school is the foundation of my storytelling," he said. Maruta is also a member of the Nagasaki Foundation for the Promotion of Peace's photo material research committee, examining photographs that document the aftermath of the atomic bombing.
As a caretaker of Keiho Junior High's Suiran-kai, the successor organization to the school's alumni association which disbanded in 2011, Maruta organizes an annual memorial service on Aug. 9. However, the aging of alumni and bereaved families has led to dwindling attendance.
"How regretful my classmates must have felt. We must not forget them. We must continue to tell their story," Maruta insists. This year, he once again handwrote the names on each invitation postcard for the memorial service.
(Japanese original by Naoki Soeya, Nagasaki Bureau)
99,130 holders of A-bomb survivor's certificates
As of the end of March 2025, the number of holders of atomic bomb survivor's certificates totaled 99,130, falling below 100,000 for the first time since the issuance system began. This is just over a quarter of the peak number of 372,264 recorded in fiscal 1980. The average age of certificate holders stood at 86.13 years. By prefecture, Hiroshima had the highest number at 48,310, followed by Nagasaki at 23,543, Fukuoka at 3,957, Tokyo at 3,307 and Osaka at 3,186. Yamagata Prefecture had the fewest, with six holders. There were also 2,178 "overseas hibakusha" -- A-bomb survivors who returned to their home countries or emigrated abroad after the war.