Hanatani Kaikan is seen before its demolition, in Sakyo Ward, Kyoto, on July 9, 2020. (Mainichi/Mai Suganuma)

       KYOTO -- The Hanatani Kaikan, a small, deteriorating two-story wooden building near the main gate of Kyoto University's Yoshida campus, was demolished this summer. Built shortly after the war and once the university co-op headquarters, it was named after a student who died on a field survey in Hiroshima 76 years ago in the immediate aftermath of the atomic bombing.

       After the events of Aug. 6, 1945, the Faculty of Science and Faculty of Medicine at Kyoto University (then Kyoto Imperial University) formed an atomic bomb disaster research team to survey the damage and provide medical care to A-bomb survivors in Hiroshima.

       But on Sept. 17, the Makurazaki Typhoon struck the region. The survey team was staying at the Ono Army Hospital in the village of Ono (now the city of Hatsukaichi), Hiroshima Prefecture, when a mudslide swept it away. It killed 156 people, including hospitalized A-bomb survivors. Among the victims were 11 team members, including faculty members and university students.

       Ono Army Hospital, which collapsed due to a mudslide, is seen in September 1945. (Photo courtesy of Kyoto University Archives)

       Terukazu Hanatani, a 24-year-old Faculty of Science graduate student, was one of them. He entered Hiroshima with the team on Aug. 10, and collected soil near the hypocenter which he brought back to the university to measure radiation levels. On Sept. 16, he returned to Hiroshima. Disaster struck the next day.

       Hanatani Kaikan was built two years later, in 1947. Hanatani's older brother donated it to the university for use in promoting students' welfare, and as a place on campus where the spirit of his brother could stay forever.

       First a coffee shop and later the university co-op's headquarters, the building became decrepit and was out of use from 2016, when its demolition was decided. The university co-op is asking Kyoto University to install a cenotaph or other monument on the site that will give people a "chance to think about war and peace." Hanatani Kaikan told the story of Kyoto University's relationship with the atomic bombing and the disaster's tragedy long after the war.

       Kyoto University's atomic bomb disaster research team is seen in September 1945. (Photo courtesy of Kyoto University Archives)

       Hanatani himself majored in atomic physics, and his achievements include highly accurate measurements of the number of neutrons generated in uranium fission. His Hiroshima soil measurements results provided evidence supporting the conclusion the bomb was an atomic one.

       The typhoon tragedy in Hiroshima was also noted by physicist Hideki Yukawa, who conducted research at Kyoto University and was awarded the Nobel Prize in physics in 1949. According to Yukawa's diary shared by the Yukawa Institute for Theoretical Physics at Kyoto University, he writes on Sept. 24, 1945: "Hanatani and Hori (lecturer Jutaro Hori of the Faculty of Science) were reportedly caught in a typhoon in Hiroshima." On Sept. 26, 1945, he notes: "I went to the house of Terukazu Hanatani's brother to pay my respects" (Sept. 26, 1945). A university funeral is also described.

       Kyoto University Professor Emeritus Akira Masaike, 86, studied under survey team member and physicist Kiichi Kimura, who was also Hanatani's instructor. Masaike recalled, "Kimura said, 'I had a brush with death when I was swept away (by the mudslide). I almost fainted and clung to a rock.'. The hurt of losing his promising student seemed deep even after a lot of time had passed."

       A photo of Terukazu Hanatani displayed at Hanatani Kaikan, now kept by the Kyoto University co-op. (Mainichi/Mai Suganuma)

       Masaike, a physicist himself, said of the Kyoto University research team that was among the first to visit the A-bombed city: "I think their goal was to seek the truth and use their research to help people." He added, "I hope the students will inherit this sense of mission and pass on to the future the thoughts their predecessors put into Hanatani Kaikan."

       ***

       The Makurazaki Typhoon (also called Typhoon Ida) swept across the Japanese archipelago after making landfall near the city of Makurazaki in Kagoshima Prefecture on Sept. 17, 1945. In all, 3,756 people died or went missing, with 80% of the dead in Hiroshima Prefecture where the atomic bomb had just been dropped. It was one of the Showa era's (1926-1989) three major typhoons along with the 1934 Muroto Typhoon and the 1959 Isewan Typhoon (also called Typhoon Vera).

       (Japanese original by Mai Suganuma, Osaka Regional News Department)

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