December 2021 Auction Ends Thursday, December 9th, 5pm Pacific
This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 12/9/2021
Rare and lengthy letter by Kiyoshi Tanimoto, the Methodist minster and Hiroshima survivor who worked tirelessly to help the ''Keloid Girls'', or ''Hiroshima Maidens'', a group of school age girls who were seriously disfigured from the atomic bomb blast. Tanimoto writes on 13 April 1953 on Hiroshima Peace Center Foundation stationery, detailing his progress in helping these young girls, and expressing his frustration over the political backlash. Letter to fellow Methodist minister, Reverend C.F. Avey of Massachusetts, reads in part,
''I deeply apologise to you for my long silence...I have been away from my office very often on behalf of our medical care program for keloid girls. As you probably already know, eight of them are still hospitalized and receiving plastic surgery at the Tokyo University Hospital, where they will have to stay an year.
I took another group of 12 girls to Osaka...for medical examination...Since then, we have worked hard to organize 'Osaka Associates of Hiroshima Peace Center,' which...consists of various women's groups in and around Osaka...four girls out of the 12 were hospitalized in the Osaka University...After returning from Osaka, last, I found that a big social reaction was taking place regarding these girls. Some doctors of Hiroshima ask why we take them to Tokyo and Osaka, when they can very well receive treatment here. Although they have done nothing to help these girls, they think that we made them lose face. Some people also ask why we take care of young girls alone, when there are so many other victims, young and old, male and female. In all they are blaming us for our shorthandedness, for our limited actions, brought about mainly through the lack of funds. I am trying my best to ignore thees opposions [sic].
On the other hand, however, we have received good results. [Two groups] pledged their supports and decided to organise a 'Counter-plan Committee for A-bomb Survivors'. The director of the U.S. Gov't-sponsored Atomic Bomb Casualty Commission, Dr. Taylor, flew back to America to find whether there was any possibility to get some specialist from America for help in this campaign...
All this Controversy and bickering has risen from the question of where all the money necessary for these treatments were to come from. So, I am firmly convinced that this movement to raise fund is a matter of urgent necessity...[signed] Kiyoshi Tanimoto''.
In his plight to help the Hiroshima girls, Tanimoto went on an extensive speaking tour in the United States, and appeared on the show ''This Is Your Life'' in 1951, where he and his family were uncomfortably introduced to the pilot of the Enola Gay, the plane that dropped the bomb on Hiroshima. Two page letter on two sheets measures 8'' x 11.75'', accompanied by original envelope. Folds through signature, else near fine condition.
Kiyoshi Tanimoto Letter Signed with Lengthy Content on the Hiroshima Maidens -- ''...our medical care program for keloid girls...eight of them are still hospitalized and receiving plastic surgery...''
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