Monument to the teachers and children who died in the atomic bombing

Date of construction: August 4, 1971 In accordance with the 1938 National Spiritual Mobilization Law, schools were also put on a war footing. In 1941, the name was changed to National Schools, and there was a 6-year elementary school, which is equivalent to today's elementary schools, and a 2-year advanced school, which is equivalent to junior high school. As the war intensified, elementary school students from the third grade onwards were forcibly evacuated to the countryside to avoid air raids. As a result, the first and second graders who were left behind with their parents because they were too young, and the advanced school students who were forced to work on building evacuation were victims of the atomic bomb. The exact number of teachers and children who died at the National Schools is unknown, but it is estimated that there were about 200 teachers and about 2,000 children. The monument is a symbol of the determination to promote peace education in the present and future, with the message that "we must never allow another atomic bomb," and every year on August 4th, a memorial service is held, attended by many bereaved families, representatives of elementary and junior high school students in Hiroshima City, and people involved in education. "Thick bones are teachers, but small head bones gather beside them." This tanka poem by A-bomb survivor Masaeda Shinoe expresses the regret of the children and students who died in the inferno of the atomic bomb while relying on their teachers, and the teachers who died while caring for them.