Hiroshima Maidens: More than a Facelift

Nearing the end of World War II, the Allied forces were desperate to end the fighting with Japan in the Pacific. For the American troops it seemed as though the Japanese would not have surrendered until every soldier and citizen were wiped out. In a desperate move President Truman made the decision of utilizing the newly developed atomic bomb in hopes of forcing the Japanese in to surrender once they witnessed the sheer destructive force the Americans now possessed. In August of 1945 two atomic bombs were dropped on Hiroshima first, and then Nagasaki. Both cities were decimated in an instant. Hundreds of thousands were killed in the initial blast, while thousands more were afflicted with radiation poisoning in the years after. The cities fared no better as most buildings and homes were destroyed in the blast and resulting shockwave. As the crew of the Enola Gay, the plane which dropped the bombs, flew away from Hiroshima, co-pilot Robert Lewis wrote in his log, “My God, what have we done”[1]. In his article “Reconstructing the Hiroshima Maidens”, David Serlin goes into detail about the reconstruction of Hiroshima and, more importantly, its relation to the physical rehabilitation of a group of Hiroshima women who suffered great burn scars from the atomic blast.

Survivors of the atomic blasts in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, often times bore physical scarring from the intense heat and radiation. For women who were victims of burns and scars, were kept inside by family out of shame. Japanese surgeons were sometimes employed to fix the physical deformities, but to no great success. Reverend Kiyoshi Tanimoto decided to gather a group of 25 scarred women and take them to America for professional plastic surgery. Dubbed the “Hiroshima Maidens”, this group of women was to be reconstructed much like the city of Hiroshima itself. On the projects announcement, newspapers began the story of these women, starting with a photograph of two Maidens posed in front of the still-standing Industrial Promotion Hall, depicting the old Hiroshima as the Promotion Hall, and the new, upcoming modernizing changes of the Hiroshima Maidens. Serlin makes the argument that “the orchestrated efforts by the Maidens’ sponsors to reconstruct the young women’s faces and bodies reflected the same desire for transformation that affected their native city”[2]. The argument that the Maidens’ upcoming plastic surgery and 18 month stay in America parallels the desire to reconstruct Hiroshima in a westernized vision is sound in its reasoning.

For the weeks leading up to, and  during the trip, the Maidens were followed by newspaper articles and television programs detailing their travels, as well as publishing their accounts of the atomic explosion. Television program This is Your Life had Tanimoto recount his day of the explosion, and even brought on the co-pilot of the Enola Gay, Robert Lewis. Something which irritated me when reading through Serlin’s article was his explanation of how the State Department closely monitored the Maidens’ travels and exposure in relation to the growing anti-atomic movement. It made it seem as though these women were nothing more than political chess pieces during the beginnings of the Cold War. The State Department seemed to want to keep the topic off of the effects caused by the atomic bombs, and get these women the surgery as quickly as possible. To them, it seemed as though anyone who spoke out against the use of atomic weapons were pro-USSR and pro-Communist. In the end, after all the media harassment and political games, the women did receive treatment, thus becoming symbols of a new “postwar identity” [3]. Serlin goes on to explain that the Maidens represented a group of people who could reclaim their bodies after begin scarred by the horrors of modern warfare. Even though the Maidens were able to reclaim their physical features, their return welcome was split between those welcoming them and those seeing them as puppets to the Westerners. There also seems to be a parallel with American veterans who were disfigured from the war being looked down upon with overly sympathetic eyes, as well as losing job prospects due to their new disability.

The use of the atomic bomb from moralistic standpoint is still being discussed in the modern day with relation to possible future conflict. Its use in World War II led to instantaneous mass death and destruction. It also left thousands with physical deformities such as burns and extreme scarring. The Hiroshima Maidens had the opportunity to have those deformities corrected by top American surgeons, as well as months to spend recuperating in the Pennsylvanian countryside. I see this story as another charitable action grabbed by sensationalist media and twisted into something it never intended to be. With interference from the State Department and newspapers, I see it as a miracle that the women made it to the operating room. With questions revolving around pro-atomic and anti-atomic citizens, the State Department kept close watch on the travels of the Maidens to make sure pro-Communist propaganda did not make its way to the tabloids or newly formed grassroots movements. i think one question Serlin did not address enough was the Maidens’ return trip to Japan. He makes a few concluding remark about how it split citizens, but I think he should delve deeper into that aspect of accepting these “Westernized” women alongside the newly reconstructed and Westernized city of Hiroshima.

Side note: I did find the This is Your Life segment mentioned in the article where Robert Lewis, one of the men who dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima, meets with Reverend Tanimoto, a survivor of the atomic bombing. Click here to view it. It is quite awkward as one would imagine.

[1] David Serlin, “Reconstructing the Hiroshima Maidens,” Replaceable you: engineering the body in postwar America (2004). 89

[2] Ibid. 77

[3] Ibid. 101