Wars and Hiroshima

Hiroshima was set on the road of militarism by the Sino-Japanese War (1894-95) which was the beginning of a half century tragedy. Many soldiers embarked for the battlefields of Asia from Ujina Port (completed in 1889). The Sanyo Railway Line was extended through Hiroshima only a month before the sino-Japanese War began in June. The Ujina Railway Line from Hiroshima Station to the port was laid in two weeks of rush work after the war commenced. With escalation to all-out war, the Imperial Headquarters were moved from Tokyo to Hiroshima in September, and the Emperor visited the city. In December the Imperial Diet was convened in temporary quarters in the city. Hiroshima thus became a base for aggression on the Korean Peninsula and in China.

Even after that war's end, military facilities were expanded, with the construction of a guarantine station in 1895, an army supply depot in 1897, an army arsenal in 1905, and an army clothing depot in 1907. Equipped fro the role of a military base, Hiroshima was drawn into Japan's imperialist wars, starting with the Sino-Japanese War and continuing with the Russo-Japanese War (1904-05), the dispatch of troops to Siberia during World War I (1914-18), the Manchurian Incident (1931), the War with China (1937), and the Pacific War (1941-45).

The Pacific War, which opened with Japan's sudden Pearl Harbor attack on December 8, 1941 (December 7, US time), was drawing to an end by the summer of 1945. US forces landed on Okinawa in April, and the Potsdam Declaration of July 26 set the terms for terminating the war. After atomic bombs were dropped on Hiroshima (August 6) and Nagasaki (August 9), Japan accepted the Potsdam terms of unconditional surrender (August 15).

Hiroshima lay in ruins, but its half-century role as a base for Asian invasion was over. The ravages of war that befell Hiroshima were massive and horrible, yet the city had had its part in the devastation that Japan wreaked on Asian and Pacific peoples. The truth of both stories should be faithfully handed down to each generation.