By MAMI OKADA/ Staff Writer
June 3, 2022 at 18:01 JST
Takako Morita makes an entry of the names and the ages of the recently deceased in the registry on June 2 in Nagasaki. (Mami Okada)
NAGASAKI--The annual entry of names into a registry of deceased atomic bomb victims began here on June 2 with about 3,300 expected to be added before the Nagasaki Peace Memorial Ceremony on Aug. 9.
The names of those who died from last August to the end of this July and those newly identified as victims will be added.
The registry was removed from a cenotaph for the additions and will be returned during the Peace Memorial Ceremony on the 77th anniversary of the bombing.
Takako Morita, 74, a second-generation atomic bomb survivor, will be making the entries for the 21st time. She is a calligraphy instructor.
Every year she uses an ink stone given to her from her aunt, who survived the atomic bombing.
Morita sat upright as she made entries into the registry in the Japanese-style room in the municipal government staff hall.
She placed a new writing brush on the chopstick stand, which is in the shape of a pigeon, and said, “This stand is just right for this because it is a symbol of peace.”
The first added was a person who died at the age of 35 on Aug. 9, 1945, when the atomic bomb was dropped.
She slowly wrote the name, reflecting, "The person must have had a lot of things to do.”
The names of the atomic bomb victims have been added every year. The registry contains the names of 189,245 people as of Aug. 9 last year.
She is expected to add 3,300 people by Aug. 5 this year.
Morita prepares seven to eight new brushes every year to keep writing the names down cleanly and neatly.
“I would like to pray that they rest in peace until I finish writing,” she said.
The other city that suffered an atomic bombing, Hiroshima, also began the annual entry of names into a registry on June 1. It carried the names of 328,941 people as of Aug. 6 last year.
More than 4,200 names will be added and be presented at the annual Hiroshima Peace Memorial Ceremony on Aug. 6.
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