『被爆地にたつ孤児収容所～２千人の父、上栗頼登～』An Orphan Camp on Atomic Bombed Land

Hiroshima Peace Program TSS ARCHIVE PROJECT
https://www.tss-tv.co.jp/web/archive_...

An Orphan Camp on Atomic Bombed Land~ Yorito Kamikuri, Father of 2,000 ~
Broadcast schedule: 9:50 a.m. - 10:45 a.m. Friday, August 6, 2021

Program Contents

“I believed that the only way to live was to steal like this or kill people and steal their money to survive.”

Feelings spewed by an “A-bomb orphan” after the atomic bomb robbed him of his family.
According to a survey conducted by the then Ministry of Health and Welfare in 1948, the number of orphans in Japan was approximately 120,000. Hiroshima Prefecture had the largest number at 5,975, surpassing any larger metropolitan area.

The atomic bombing 76 years ago instantly scorched the entire city of Hiroshima. Just two months later, amidst the ruins, a 26-year-old young man set up a camp for orphans with his own money. He named it Hiroshima Shinsei Gakuen, meaning Hiroshima new life school. The facility filled up with A-bomb orphans, war orphans, repatriated orphans, and many other children who had lost their families in the war.

The name of this young man who founded the facility was Yorito Kamikuri (who lived to be 76 years old). It all started with his own experience of the atomic bombing. On August 6, 1945, Kamikuri witnessed groaning people who had collapsed from exhaustion and crying babies clinging to their mothers who had taken their last breath. He would later spend his whole life regretting not being able to do anything.

This program traces the unknown history of a facility that once stood on scorched land, as it conveys the wishes for peace that has brought us to the present, and sheds light on the fact that many children were at the mercy of war.

Sayuri Fukai, Director

My encounter with Hiroshima Shinsei Gakuen, currently in Higashihiroshima City, was about five years ago when I heard about a facility that was successfully rehabilitating boys and girls through group sports instruction. When I went to visit the school, I noticed many war-related objects such as a cenotaph for the victims of the atomic bombing, A-bombed rocks, and an ossuary. The facility had originally been in Motomachi, near the hypocenter, but moved to its current location.

I am a third-generation hibakusha from Naka-ku, Hiroshima City, but I had never heard of Shinsei Gakuen before. I also conducted a survey of hibakusha groups across Japan, to which most responded that they had also never heard of the name. As I continued my search, I was surprised to find that there was very little information about how orphans lived after the war. Why did Kamikuri reach out to these children at a time when it must have been hard enough just for him to survive?

Conflicts and war continue to occur even now, some say that we are facing the greatest challenges since WWII. It begs the question, are we able to hear the “small voices” calling for help, as Kamikuri did? This might be the ideal opportunity to think about it.

Through the interviews, I was reminded that in conflict, those who get hurt, those who do the hurting, and those able to reach out to help others are all human beings. I felt an urgency to tell the history of the love and hardships of one unknown citizen, who worked hard to rise from the ruins of an atomic bombed city. I felt the need to do so before the facts get buried in the past. This is why, using the few remaining references that I could find as clues, I created this program.

Hiroshima Peace Program TSS ARCHIVE PROJECT
https://www.tss-tv.co.jp/web/archive_...

ＴＳＳ報道特別番組『被爆地にたつ孤児収容所～２千人の父、上栗頼登～』
放送日時：2021年8月6日（金）9:50～10：45

番組内容
「生きるためにはこうして盗るか、人を殺してお金を盗って食べて行くほかはないと僕は考えていた」

原爆に家族を奪われた１人の「原爆孤児」が吐き出した思い。1948年に厚生省（当時）がおこなった調査によると、孤児の人数は、日本全体で約12万人。広島県は大都市圏を抑え、全国で最多の5975人だった。

76年前の原爆により一瞬にして焦土となった広島。その廃墟の中で終戦からわずか2カ月後、26歳の若者が孤児収容所「広島新生学園」を自費で開設した。施設には、原爆孤児や戦災孤児、引き揚げ孤児…戦争で身寄りをなくした多くの子供たちでいっぱいになった。施設を創った若者の名前は「上栗頼登（かみくり　よりと）」（享年76歳）。施設の創設は、自身の被爆体験が原点だった。1945年8月6日。力尽きて倒れた人たちのうめき声、息絶えた母親にしがみついて泣き叫ぶ赤ん坊。上栗さんは苦しむ人を目の前に何もできなかった後悔の念を生涯にわたって抱き続けることになる。

かつて焦土にあった施設の知られざるその歴史を辿るとともに、現在へとつながる平和への願い、そして多くの子供たちが戦争に翻弄されたことを、今へと伝える。

ディレクター（深井　小百合（ふかい　さゆり））

５年程前「スポーツによる集団指導で少年少女の更生に成果をあげている施設がある」と聞いたのが広島新生学園（現・東広島市）との出会いでした。実際に学園を訪ねると、原爆慰霊碑、被爆した石、納骨堂など戦争に関するものが園内に多くのこされていることに気が付きました。施設はかつて爆心地近くの広島市中区基町にあり、今の場所へと移転してきました。

私は広島市中区出身の被爆３世ですが、広島新生学園の事は初めて知り、全国の被爆者団体へのアンケート調査も実施しましたが、「名前も聞いたことがない」という人が大半。さらに取材をすすめるうちに驚いたのは、戦後、孤児がどうやって生きてきたのかを残したものが非常に少なかったことです。自分が生きるだけで精一杯だったはずのこの時代に、なぜ上栗さんは子供たちに手を差し伸べたのでしょうか。

今も世界の各地では、紛争や争い事が絶えません。果たして私たちは上栗さんのように助けを求めている「小さな声」に耳を傾けることが出来ているのか、いまこそ考えてみる機会なのかもしれません。取材を通して、争いで傷つくのも、傷つけるのも、そして手を差し伸べることが出来るのも同じ「人間」なのだと改めて気付かされました。原爆の廃墟から立ち上がるために尽力した、知られざる１人の市民の思いと苦難。それを「いま伝えなければこのまま埋もれてしまう歴史」だと感じ、残された数少ない資料を手掛かりに番組を制作しました。

Hiroshima Peace Program TSSアーカイブプロジェクト
https://www.tss-tv.co.jp/web/archive_...