Hiroshima: A-Bombed City Used to Be ‘Military Capital’; People Recall Victory Parades, Pro-War Sentiment

By Daiki Komatsu and Hitomi Nakayasu / Yomiuri Shimbun Staff Writers

11:10 JST, August 2, 2025

HIROSHIMA — The city of Hiroshima, known throughout the world for its advocacy of peace, once was a “military capital,” where people thrilled to see soldiers heading to the battlefield. Locals were involved in the manufacture of warships and weapons, too.

In Hiroshima’s Minami Ward is Akatsukibashi, a bridge about 10 meters long connecting the mainland to Ujina Island. The island measures about three kilometers in circumference and juts out into the Seto Inland Sea. During the G7 summit in Hiroshima in May 2023, cars carrying world leaders crossed the bridge to reach a hotel on the island, the summit’s main venue.

The bridge was named after the unit of the Imperial Japanese Army that built the structure, known as the Akatsuki military unit. The unit was stationed near Ujina Port (now Hiroshima Port) during World War II, and was responsible for transporting troops and supplies to the front lines by sea.

Victory parade

“We were excited and held a parade every time the Imperial Japanese Army achieved victory. The whole town would be in a festive mood,” said Chieko Kiriake, 95, of Hiroshima City, recalling the enthusiasm around the start of the war against China in 1937.

Kiriake was born and raised near the base of the Akatsuki unit. Her father was a factory manager at a shipyard on the island. Kiriake said she felt proud when she saw army transport ships her father had built sailing off to the battle areas, carrying soldiers and supplies from all over the country.

But this exuberant atmosphere changed drastically with the intensification of the Pacific War. At the end of 1943, as Japan began losing, the army introduced a special cadet corps system and began selecting male volunteers under the age of 20.

Nobuo Ito, then a 16-year-old boy in Iwate Prefecture, volunteered in February 1945. “I would have done anything. I would not have minded even becoming a human torpedo for suicide attacks. I was a hard, militaristic young man,” Ito, now 97, said.

Charred bodies

When the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima at 8:15 a.m. on Aug. 6, 1945, Ito was on duty near the port about 4.5 kilometers from the hypocenter. He had been assigned to a communications unit.

Ito saw all the fire engines and trucks being dispatched. When they came back, the truck beds were filled with charred bodies.

Rescue orders were soon issued, and about 4,000 soldiers of the Akatsuki unit including teenagers headed to devastated areas. They spent a week cremating bodies, including those of people who had died before their eyes. In witnessing the overwhelming number of corpses, the militaristic boy’s thinking changed 180 degrees.

Kiriake, who was 15 years old at the time, was affected by the atomic bomb at a location about 2 kilometers from the hypocenter, sustaining injuries from glass shards cut her head. After returning her school, Kiriake helped cremate her schoolmates and others who died from burns to their entire bodies, tearfully collecting their bones.

Kiriake and Ito now work as war storytellers in Hiroshima and Iwate prefectures, respectively. They discuss not only the bombings’ catastrophic effects, but also how Japan headed into war, sharing their stories in the belief that the horrific wartime scenes should never be repeated.

“The tragedy of atomic bombings came as the result of Japan pushing forward with war. The perpetrators and their victims are two sides of the same coin,” Ito said.

Kure: Another military city

While Hiroshima was a base for the army, Kure was another military city where the Imperial Japanese Navy had its headquarters.

Surrounded by mountains and islands, Kure Bay was difficult for enemies to observe, and deep and wide enough to accommodate large vessels. In 1903, a military factory run by the navy was set up and played an important role in building main vessels.

Reiji Fujimoto, 93, was born and raised in Kure. He remembers how he and his classmates excitedly talked about the battleship Yamato in elementary school.

The military port of Kure was dubbed “the best in the East.” Massive red brick warehouses lining the coast and the navy’s main vessels traveling through looked beautiful, Fujimoto said.

Fujimoto was impressed every time Japan achieved military feats, such as the attack on Pearl Harbor, and thought Japan was amazing.

In January 1945, Fujimoto was conscripted into the shipyard at the age of 13 and began working on the manufacture of torpedo parts.

Starting in March, however, Kure became a U.S. military target, and at least 2,000 people were killed in 14 air raids. The shipyard lost most of its shipbuilding and weapon production capabilities due to the repeated raids. In April 1945, Fujimoto’s father, a naval lieutenant and crew member of the Yamato, died when the battleship was sunk.

Fujimoto, who later worked as university faculty member, still harbors regrets.

“I myself didn’t kill anyone, but I did help make torpedoes. It was an outrageous time, when innocent children were forced to take part in the war,” Fujimoto said.