Mobile Theatre Sakura Corps Martyrs Monument

[Date of erection] August 6, 1955 (Showa 30) [Erected by] Shinkyo Theater Company, Bungakuza, Haiyuza, Budou no Kai, Mingei, Chuo Art Theater, Theater People War Victims Memorial Association [History] Sakuratai was a nine-member mobile theater company based in Hiroshima that gave entertainment performances for military forces and factories toward the end of the war. The members were in their lodgings in Horikawa-cho (now Shintenchi, 750 meters from the hypocenter) when the bomb was dropped, and five of them died instantly. The other four escaped to Tokyo and other areas, but all had died by the end of the month. After the war, a monument was erected at the current location near the site of the bombing by people associated with the new theater company. The names of the nine victims are inscribed on the back of the monument.