Human Shadow Etched in Stone

Photograph possessed by Australian War Memorial. Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum adopts the same photograph for the exhibition. It was photographed by Yoshito Matsushige. The leg of accompanying journalist was also included intended to describe the situation.[1]

Human Shadow Etched in Stone (Japanese: 人影の石)[2] is an exhibition at Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum. It is thought to be the outline of a person, who was sitting at the entrance of Hiroshima Branch of Sumitomo Bank that remained, when the atomic bomb was dropped over Hiroshima. It is also known as Human Shadow of Death.[1]

Outline

According to the museum, it is thought that the person had been sitting on the stone step waiting for the bank to open, when the heat from the bomb burned the surrounding stone white and left their shadow.[3][4] A black deposit was also found on the shadow.[5] A piece of stone containing the artifact was cut from the original location, and had a horizontal surface area of about 3.3m2 and a height of about 2m, and was moved to the museum.[6]

In January 1971, the museum garnered the stone, whose human shadow had become indistinct due to weathering. In April 1975, the museum started research on how to preserve the shadow.[7] In 1991, the museum reported that earnest investigation of preservation methods had commenced.[8] At present, the stone is exhibited surrounded by glass.[9][10]

It is thought that the person depicted in the stone, died immediately with the flash of the atomic bomb, or died after falling down after the explosion.[3][11] Some people stated that they saw the person sitting at the entrance just before the bombing.[12] A former soldier testified that he had recovered the persons body. However, the person's identity is still unknown.[12] As of 2016, the exhibition of the museum states that, "Several people have suggest that the person could be a member of their family". In the past, the museum exhibition contained a statement that the person had been a 42-year-old woman named Mitsuno Koshitomo (越智ミツノ).[12] As a result of these previous statements, some conclusions in the literature state that she was the person depicted in the stone.

According to museum staff, many visitors to the museum believe that the shadow is the outline of a human vaporized immediately after the bombing.[4] However, from a medical perspective, the possibility of human vaporization is not supported. The ground surface temperature is thought to have ranged from 3,000 to 4,000 degrees Celsius just after the bombing. Even after a body burned at these temperature with heat rays, bones and carbonized organs would remain. Even when considering the effect of radiation, though the skin may become severely inflamed and ulcerated, complete vaporization of the body is impossible.[4]

History

Hiroshima Branch of Sumitomo Bank

Hiroshima Branch of Sumitomo Bank after the bombing. There existed Human Shadow of Death near the person standing at the entrance.
The view toward the east from Hiroshima Chamber of Commerce and Industry. The white building in the center is the head office of Geibi Bank, and the neighbor on the right is the Hiroshima Branch of Sumitomo Bank.
Photographed by U.S. forces on November 20, 1945

Human Shadow Etched in Stone was originally a part of stone steps at the entrance of Hiroshima Branch of Sumitomo Bank, which was 260m from ground zero.[1][3] The present address is at, Kamiya-cho 1 Chome, the current location of Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation, Hiroshima Branch.[lower-alpha 1]

The building of the bank was built in 1928. It was designed by Kenzo Takekoshi (竹腰健造) at the department of engineering of Sumitomo Group (now Nikken Sekkei), and was constructed by Obayashi Corporation.[14] The building had reinforced concrete construction, with four floors above ground and one below with an open ceiling up to the third floor. The rooms for business, reception room and specie room were on the first floor, the meeting rooms and cafeteria on the fourth floor, and the boiler room in the basement.[14][15] It was built in the south of head office of Geibi Bank （Now head office of Hiroshima Bank, which had been built a year before, and which was almost the same size. It had Romanesque architecture style in general, and was characterized by the large arch with molding of its front.[14]

On August 6, 1945, it was bombed. It was not totally destroyed, but the interior was destroyed while the exterior remained.[15] Fortunately, the specie room was not damaged. The cash and passbooks remained.[15] Papers inside the building were blown as far away as Numata-cho by the blast.[lower-alpha 2][15]

In the morning of the day of the bombing, the bank was to be open as usual. Most of the employees were on their way to the office when the bomb was dropped. 29 employees were killed immediately (including both those who were in the branch and those on their way to the work), 40 were injured and no one missing.[15] Some of the survivors died within a few days because of the illness caused by the radiation exposure, others worked till their retirement age.[15] Since it was close to ground zero, passersby took refuge in the building, and a large number of bodies were recovered.[15]

As the branch started their business again after the war, the entrance soon became a famous sight "a place of A-bomb" showing the damage of the atomic bombing, which was officially recognized by Hiroshima City.[17] In those days, the shadow was called "Human Shadow of Death".[1][18] According to a testimony, it was the second most famous sight next to Atomic Bomb Dome.[19] Sumitomo Bank made great efforts to preserve the shadow. In 1959 they built a fence surrounding the stone, and in 1967 they placed tempered glass covering the stone to prevent deterioration.[1][6][18]

In 1971, Hiroshima Branch was planned to be rebuilt. The stone was cut down around the shadow, which was then donated to the museum.[1][6]

Saying of human vaporization

According to Masaharu Hoshi(1947–), a radiology scientist, in his childhood he heard of the saying that the shadow had been generated after human vaporization.[4] "Journal on the damage of atomic bombing in Hiroshima" (広島原爆戦災誌), published by Hiroshima City in 1971, also contains a description implying human vaporization, which is now proved to be impossible.[4]

Within a radius of 500 meters of the ground zero, (Omitted) people were killed almost immediately as if they had been vaporized (Omitted) bodies and bones were burned thoroughly almost not to be found, and everything was destroyed, which was buried in white ash.

— Hiroshima City, Journal on the damage of atomic bombing in Hiroshima vol.2[20] (translation mine)

In 1994 at the Committee on Health and Welfare of the House of Councillors Eimatsu Takakuwa mentioned the stone by saying "One was vaporized and vanished immediately. Only the shadow remained."[21]

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ The branch had been in Nakajima-Honmachi before it was transferred to a new building in Kamiya-cho.[13]
  2. ↑ According to the online map,[16] it is approximately nine kilometers from ground zero to Numata-cho.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "ヒロシマの記録 貴重な「記憶」次代へ" (in Japanese). Chugoku Shimbun. 2004-03-22. Retrieved 2017-06-15.
  2. ↑ "Human Shadow Etched in Stone". Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum. Retrieved 2017-06-15.
  3. 1 2 3 "人影の石" (in Japanese). Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum. Retrieved 2017-06-15.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 "熱線で「人が蒸発」本当？" (in Japanese). Hiroshima Peace Media Center. Retrieved 2017-06-15.
  5. ↑ "ヒロシマの記録2000　3月" (in Japanese). Hiroshima Peace Media Center. Retrieved 2017-06-15.
  6. 1 2 3 "ヒロシマの記録1971　1月" (in Japanese). Hiroshima Peace Media Center. Retrieved 2017-06-15.
  7. ↑ "ヒロシマの記録1975　4月" (in Japanese). Hiroshima Peace Media Center. Retrieved 2017-06-15.
  8. ↑ "ヒロシマの記録1991　5月" (in Japanese). Hiroshima Peace Media Center. Retrieved 2017-06-15.
  9. ↑ "針折れる　広島資料館の収蔵資料約２万点、劣化進む". Mainichi Shimbun (in Japanese). 2015-12-12. Retrieved 2017-09-13.
  10. ↑ "オバマ大統領広島訪問直前に巻き起こった原爆資料館批判" (in Japanese). News Post Seven. 2016-05-25. Retrieved 2017-06-15.
  11. ↑ "人影の石" (in Japanese). Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum. Retrieved 2017-06-15.
  12. 1 2 3 "「人影の石」説明板に名前追加" (in Japanese). Chugoku Shimbun. 1997-08-02. Retrieved 2017-06-15.
  13. ↑ A-bombed Buildings Investigation Committee (1996). ヒロシマの被爆建造物は語る (in Japanese). Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum. p. 44.
  14. 1 2 3 Li, MING; ISHIMARU, Norioki (2006). "The Study on the Activities and Their Features of Architects in Hiroshima Before World War Two: The study on the architects activity form and feature in local city". Journal of Architecture and Planning (Transactions of AIJ). Architectural Institute of Japan. 71 (608): 197–204. doi:10.3130/aija.71.197_4. ISSN 1340-4210.
  15. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Hiroshima City (2005) [1971]. 広島原爆戦災誌 (pdf) (in Japanese). 3. Hiroshima City. pp. 149–152. Retrieved 2017-06-15.
  16. ↑ "地理院地図" (in Japanese). Geospatial Information Authority of Japan. Retrieved 2017-11-04.
  17. ↑ "ヒロシマの記録　消えた「原爆十景」追う" (in Japanese). Chugoku Shimbun. 2007-04-30. Retrieved 2017-06-15.
  18. 1 2 "1945年8月～被爆した広島、長崎～　写真特集". Jiji Press. Retrieved 2017-06-15.
  19. ↑ "巻頭言：被爆建物の記憶" (in Japanese). DDK Cooperative (協同組合DDK). 2013. Retrieved 2017-06-15.
  20. ↑ Hiroshima City (2005) [1971]. 広島原爆戦災誌 (pdf) (in Japanese). 2. Hiroshima City. p. 5. Retrieved 2017-06-15.
  21. ↑ "参議院会議録情報　第１３１回国会　厚生委員会　第１１号". Full-text Database System for the Minutes of the Diet (in Japanese). National Diet Library. Retrieved 2017-09-22.

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