NHK Hiroshima manga

November 5, 2015

Manga tells tale of Hiroshima radio station’s struggle to stay on air after atomic bombing

http://ajw.asahi.com/article/cool_japan/style/AJ201511050001

By GEN OKAMOTO/ Staff Writer

HIROSHIMA--On the morning of Aug. 6, 1945, a news reporter for radio station Hiroshima Chuo Hosokyoku prepared to announce over the airwaves a warning about a possible air raid.

But before the announcement could be read, a U.S. B-29 bomber dropped an atomic bomb, destroying most of the city and knocking the radio station off the air.

To mark the 70th anniversary of the catastrophe, Japan Broadcasting Corp.'s Hiroshima Broadcasting Station (NHK Hiroshima)--Hiroshima Chuo Hosokyoku’s successor--has published a manga booklet describing how the station’s surviving employees valiantly struggled to resume broadcasting a day after the bomb was dropped.

Based on an employee's diary and other materials, "Shodo no Hosokyoku" (Broadcasting station on the scorched ground), tells how the employees made their way through ferocious fires to get to Hara Transmitting Station to broadcast an official announcement from the Hiroshima governor the next morning.

The employees recount their experiences in the manga, with one saying, "We could have saved tens of thousands of lives if we had put out the air raid alert one minute earlier."

Hiroshima Chuo Hosokyoku began broadcasting in the city in 1928. Its programs included news, radio calisthenics, cooking, music and other shows. After the war began, the station frequently provided air raid warnings and other war-related information, according to NHK Hiroshima.

Observing the 70th anniversary of the atomic bombing, NHK Hiroshima confirmed the course of events and said the desperate attempts to continue broadcasting during an emergency was its "starting point in journalism."

NHK Hiroshima has also published "Genbaku Hisaishi" (The chronicle of damages caused by the atomic bomb) and other printed materials, but it decided to release the A4-size, eight-page manga booklet to make it easy to understand for students visiting Hiroshima on school field trips.

"I was moved because I felt as if my father had returned home," said Takaaki Morikawa, 76, whose father was a technical expert at the radio station and is featured in the manga. “I hope young people will take a look it."

A copy "Shodo no Hosokyoku" can be picked up at the NHK Hiroshima station offices. The broadcaster published 5,000 copies for free distribution.