39 Monument for staffers of the Chugoku & Shikoku Civil Engineering Branch Office who died on Duty
[Monument for staffers of the Ministry of Construction (Interior Ministry)]
Date of completion August 6, 1954
Established by All staffers of the Construction Bureau of the Ministry of Construction Chugoku & Shikoku Regions
Shape
This memorial poem monument (Memorial Mound) is made from a fieldstone (1.2 m in height, 1.5 m wide, quarried in Gohara-cho, Kure City), and a stone inscribed with the names of 52 staffers who died while on duty.
Epigraph
Poem Monument: "The loss of those sacrificed by the A-bombing is the foundation of a peaceful world"
Back of the monument: "52 former staffers of the Chugoku & Shikoku Civil Engineering Branch Office of the Interior Ministry, while on duty as members of the National Militia Unit, became the foundation of peace as a result of the A-bombing and war damage on August 6, 1945, and now rest in the earth. August 6, 1954. Built by staffers of Construction Bureau of the Ministry of Construction Chugoku & Shikoku Regions"
Noteworthy characteristics
1. Persons Who Died on Duty, and Damage
Of 93 staffers of the branch office who were relocated to the rented entire third floor and part of the first floor of Hiroshima Prefectural Industrial Promotion Hall (now the Atomic Bomb Dome) 52 staffers (30 males and 22 females among 13 office workers, 32 field workers and 7 missing persons) were killed on duty and 9 were injured, excepting those who evacuated to the official residence in Ushida-cho and other facilities.
2. History of Memorial Monument (Memorial Mound)
The monument, originally a wooden structure constructed in 1947, was replaced in 1954 with a fieldstone poem monument (gravestone). Although no tombstone can be built on the premises of the Atomic Bomb Dome because it is a designated park area under Hiroshima Peace Memorial City Construction Law, construction of this monument was permitted because it was designed as a poem monument. Then-director Ichiro Abe's memorial poem, "The loss of people sacrificed by the A-bombing……" (in Japanese) was inscribed on the monument.
3. Meaning of the Epigraph
"Considering people who unfortunately died in the A-bombing, we vow our strong commitment to the building of a peaceful country as the foundation of a gradually reconstructed new Japan, the desire you never realized, so that your ultimate sacrifice will not be in vain. May you rest in peace." (Source: Data of the Chugoku Region Construction Bureau of the Ministry of Construction (present-day Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transportation Chugoku Regional Development Bureau))
4. Memorial Monument Information Stone Pillar
The stone pillar stating "On this site, staffers of the Ministry of Construction (Interior Ministry) died on duty" was established by the Chugoku Construction Kosei Association in 1980.
