To arrive in Hiroshima is an emotional experience. Here is where the first A-bomb, ever to be dropped on human beings, actually was used.

The people of the U.S. believe that the President and our military leaders thought long and carefully before they used this dreaded weapon. We know that while the head of the state must think first of the welfare of his own people consideration was also given to the fact that if the war went on, there would be in many parts of the world great loss of life and damage done, and in Japan itself step by step fighting from one end to the other would mean complete devastation and incalculable loss of life. In spite of this conviction we still cannot see a city and be told of the areas that were destroyed, the people who died or were injured, some of them still suffering from the results of those wounds, we cannot go and look at the model of the city showing what it looked like after the bomb had dropped and fire had swept through the city, we can’t see the photographs of some of the victims without a deep sadness. To see the orphanage where children whose parents died are still being cared for is impossible without wishing with our whole hearts that men could learn from this that the time has come when we know too well how to destroy and we must learn instead how to prevent destruction.

It is useless to say that Germany started the war and began the research in which we were then obliged to take over and which led to the discovery of the atomic bomb.

I can remember only too well my husband’s feeling and the feeling of the people of the US when we first heard of Pearl Harbor. Pearl Harbor was only the final action which resulted from years of growing misunderstandings and antipathies throughout the world. Out of all this came Hiroshima. But it is not only here that civilian men and women suffered. All over the world civilians suffered as a result of the last war and the increase in our power of destruction. So it seems to me the only really helpful thing we can do is to pledge ourselves to fight for the elimination of the causes of war and for the greater awareness of the people, and to bring about such arrangements as can only be made through the use of the UN. If we use the machinery set up through an organization such as that, time must elapse before wars can be begun, people may understand a little better and may have more chance to be heard.

As one contemplates Hiroshima one can truly say God grant to men greater wisdom in the future.

We came back to Hiroshima at 11 o’clock by boat [June 9] and went at once to a meeting of representative women who asked me many questions about what the American women did, how they carried on their household duties and still took part in the government, which was most important in the US? Did we as women really think Japan should rearm, did not we think that something cold be done to bring about peace in the world and what were we doing about it and so forth and so on! We were forced to evaluate the work of American organizations and try to give truthful answers and how successful they are in attaining their ends.

From the women’s meeting we went to the Atomic Bomb Casualty Commission which is an American research group commissioned to watch the effects on sufferers from injuries caused by the Atomic bomb.

Since fires started immediately after the dropping of the bomb, there are many casualties which are caused by fire and are not actually considered atomic injuries but nevertheless the people feel they have caused as much suffering and the fire was a direct consequence of the bomb.

After my meeting with the women some girls who had been injured by the fire after the bomb were waiting to see me. They said they did not wish to blame anyone but they did wish to make me realize how necessary it was to prevent it occurring again to blight young peoples lives. It was a tragic moment and made me all the more anxious to find out from Dr. Taylor of the Casualty Commission what was actually being done for future information and for helping the Japanese people at the present time. I had already been told that some of the people who were cooperating for examination by the doctors felt they were being used as guinea pigs and not enough was being done for actual recovery. But our research group is limited by its mandate and also by the fact they must not undermine the work being done by the Japanese doctors. I came away convinced that through our doctors’ efforts much was being done to help the Japanese doctors and thereby help the people generally.

The rest of the afternoon of June 9 was spent traveling by train to Fukuoka (Kyushu), stopping at Moji along the way to meet with a joint council of Japanese citizens and Army personnel.

…One thing amused me in many places and that is how small everything is, because not only Japanese women but, on the whole, Japanese men are smaller than Americans. They are just as strong and I look at some of the women working in the fields and carrying their babies about, or carrying loads on poles across their shoulders and realize that height and strength have nothing to do with each other. In addition to their height, however, I think Japanese women spend more time on their knees than we do, so their dressing tables or any of their furniture can be much nearer the ground than we find convenient.

I keep thinking how queer they must think us since they all stay slight and slim. I think I must look grotesque to them but they are very polite and very kind, always greeting me smilingly.

Wednesday morning [June 10] we went to a mine, passing through one of the big steel work areas. This was a small mine and we did not go down into the shaft but I got a very good idea of conditions and saw the women at work sorting the rocks from the coal. It is good work for women done mostly by widows. They are given a small pension but even then it must be hard to eke out a living for all told the most they can have is 10,500 a month, which in dollars is about $31.50 for a family to live on. That is also without the tax taken out and the tax when everything is included takes a good slice out of everybody’s income…

From the mining area we went to talk to a group of women whom the company had brought together. The nurse was the most outspoken in the group and pointed out some of the difficulties in the lives of the people. By and large the problems do not vary very much from those of the mining areas in the US during the early thirties but, while the miner’s union is strong, no union here is as strong as in the US.

Mr. and Mrs. Zurhellen very kindly invited us to spend the night and it was a joy to see such a happy American family, four boys and a baby girl, all learning to be good Americans but at the same time all learning to speak Japanese in the most painless way.

My daughter-in-law and my secretary were both indignant that anyone should think our motives could be compared to those of the Soviet Union. I’m afraid we have to face the fact over here, however, that that comparison is made by many groups and it is just as well to argue it out and point out the fallacy of their argument, but what good will come of it, is very difficult to tell…

It is an interesting situation here because the conservative and progressive party are both conservative. They would ordinarily represent the people who would want to return perhaps not to the militarism of prewar days but to many of the economic and social customs of prewar days, but under the influence of our early occupation period they passed a number of rather liberal social security laws and gave rights to trade unions. At present they are trying to rescind the right to strike. I don’t think anything has really crystallized in this country as yet. One sees much shifting back and forth and there are possibilities for much more.

I lunched with the International Ladies Benevolent Society at the same officer’s mess where I lunched before. This group includes quite a number of American and foreign women as well as some Japanese. They are concerned to help the movement for crippled children in this country. There was a time when in certain parts of our country people thought a crippled child was a disgrace and should be hidden from view. This idea has been prevalent here. So the movement to do something has only recently got under way…

I sometimes wonder whether it is a language difficulty and they do not really understand what is said, or whether they prefer their own version.

It is natural I suppose that seeing, and in some ways suffering, from U.S. military installations, they [the Japanese] are far more conscious of our military power than they are of the Soviet threat. It is hard for us to realize that every acre of land in Japan, if it can be used for a crop, is needed, and when it must be used for military needs, the people begrudge it.

The Japanese have tended throughout their history, I think, to deal in theory and to shun reality. In their present economic condition the Marxist theory as an ideal has a certain appeal but I doubt very much whether the communist reality as developed today under Lenin and Stalin would have any real appeal. One can only hope that the arguments one puts forth may bear fruit later on, for these are scholars and I think their integrity will oblige them to examine what has been said in spite of their dislike for facing realities.

The National Income of Japan is relatively far higher than the individual’s income. In the latter category her people rate about 17th in the world, on a par with the Egyptians I was told, so it is easy to see that for the masses the standard of living is very low.

On Saturday morning [June 13], I had an interview with one of the foremost women writers in Japan, Mrs. Nogami Yaeko, sponsored by Fujin Koron Magazine [Women’s Forum]. She asked my impressions so far and we discussed the position of women and the changes coming about in Japan [Nogami was the editor of the magazine and a highly regarded writer; see the texts on the Roosevelt site for a translation of the interview].

I have enjoyed reading since I have been here my interpreter Matsuoka Yoko’s book which was published by Harpers in the US. This is called, Daughter of the Pacific and tells the story of her life. She spent seven years in the US and I think has done a great deal to promote understanding and friendship for us in this country [see excerpt on this site].

I received a letter after visiting Kyoto from some of the girl students of Kyoto University. It struck me as odd when I asked why there were only 200 girls students out of an enrollment of nine thousand that I was given no definite answer, but, now that I have this letter, I understand the difficulty. In the first place these girls say their parents feel the girls do not need higher education. If they overcome this objection, however, they still have to face the fact that the University has no girls’ dormitories, no facilities for them of any kind and no programs by which they can earn money to help themselves with expenses during their time at the University. They must find rooms at somebody’s house. Many of the boy students have to do the same, but a Japanese house is not arranged for much privacy and the girls find the situation very difficult. They ask for understanding and help from the women of America since they are trying to raise the money for a girl’s dormitory and they have only about ten thousand ye. They need about 500 times that amount!

It does look as though the girl students had rather a difficult situation to face, doesn’t it?

At one of the women’s meetings I attended some time ago the following questions were asked and I though my readers at home would like to know what the line of thinking is in an Asiatic country.

1. How strong is the isolationism represented by Mr. Taft in the Republican Party? Is it possible it might eventually lead to a break with the UN?

In answer to that there is nothing for me to say except that as a democrat I know very little about the policies of the Republican party or their popularity but I certainly hope the US will always remain a loyal member of the UN.

2. Has there ever been a movement in the UN for an internationalized Suez Canal? Would it not be a good idea?

To this I responded I had never heard of such a move but I though it was too early to talk about this since if you internationalize one canal, you would probably have to internationalize canals all over the world and I did not think many nations were ready to consider that.

3. Would there not be some advantage in having Communist China in the UN where she can be influenced toward a larger internationalism. Would it not hasten a possible break with Russia?

To this the obvious answer is that until a peace settlement is effected covering the whole Asiatic situation there can be no consideration of membership for a participant in the Korean War. Members of the UN have to be peace loving nations and it seems to me that it will be some time before this question can come up for consideration or discussion.

4. What do you think would be the probable result if Russia and her satellite would withdraw from the UN?

The simple answer is that there would be no more UN. One would have to go back to the old balance of power and there would be no chance of ever achieving strength within the UN and gradual disarmament throughout the world. This can only be carried out within the UN. The League of Nations failed when nations began to play politics and one nation after another withdrew. We are hoping someday to see every nation in the world a member of the UN and thereby make it a strong organization in which the weight of world opinion is quickly felt.

During the lunch each woman present introduced herself and spoke to me of the principal interest she had at heart and though the conditions they face are very different, I could not help thinking that women members of Congress at home would have shown just about the same range of interests.

Professor Kameyama loves books and they were everywhere, on the floor, on the shelves, and on every available space! He told me his wife loved planning houses and she showed us all the little arrangements she had invented for making the work easier in her home.

Just heating a bath and the water for washing the dishes seems to be quite a job in a Japanese house. There are no labor saving devices for the Japanese housewife. The only one I have discovered so far is that everyone leaves their shoes at the door so dirt is not carried all over the house.

In the Professor’s house, as in Mr. and Mrs. Matsumoto’s, West and East meet frequently. There were beds in some rooms and not in others. There was a dining room table and chairs, but it was possible to sit on cushions on the floor.

After dinner, while the elders engaged in serious conversation, Mrs. Matsumoto dressed Minnewa and Maureen (her daughter-in-law and her secretary) up in kimonos and they came in looking like real little Japanese girls. I made them try flopping to their knees and sitting back on their heels. This they did quite well but when it came to gracefully arising, without using their hands, then they were not so good. But they were taught to bow in true Japanese style and I shall be disappointed if Minnewa doesn’t take Elliott’s breath away by delightfully bowing from the waist when she first meets him on her return.

This was followed by a group of Korean women presenting a petition against the armistice which, of course, I could do nothing about, than an American working with the welfare Department tried to tell me a little of what they are trying to do for the children and finally I had a talk with the leaders of the Progressive party, just so that I should not feel that the two socialists I had met represented the majority feeling in Japan.

Every effort is made to me a balanced picture of the thinking of the country as a whole. Quite naturally the more conservative political parties have he support of the rural areas…

On the whole I think our business men are doing a good job not only as business men but they are showing a sense of responsibility for the community in which they live which is a help to our country.

The US labors under the difficulty of being classed by many people with the colonial powers. The colonial powers, they say, exploited us politically but the US exploited us economically so we are tarred with the same brush. Our modern businessman understands this, however and really tries to do a job which will help the community in which he lives and in the long run will be far more advantageous to the business which he represents in this part of the world…

The people were working in their fields with their big straw hats and capes which they wear for the rain.

Here and there you see a few animals, a slow moving ox or a horse but on the whole your feeling as you look into these fields is that women do most of the work…

It is a constant business renovating these shrines made of wood, beautifully carved and painted with brilliant colors and layers of gold leaf, in spots, and, of course, there is lacquer work of the finest kind.

I had been told that these shrines were particularly ornate and I had wondered if I would like them as much as some of the simpler architectural lines but I found myself very much impressed and really enjoying the carvings and the colors. The Chinese influence is very evident, beginning with the stone work which seems to me very beautiful and remarkable when you realize how many years ago these walls and steps were built, and through every detail of the shrine and temples I found it beautiful.

Here is where you find painted on a panel the three well-known monkeys, “hear no evil, speak no evil, see no evil.” Over the entrance to the flight of steps leading up to a bomb of an early shogun is the portrait of the sleeping cat but she had not been touched up of late and is very difficult to find and looks quite small in her little panel over the entrance…

…Sendai [a large city in northern Honshu] was badly bombed during the war and much destruction took place but they have rebuilt energetically.

We have an army base there and the relationship between the town and the army base seems to be better than in many other localities I have heard of, perhaps because this was a Japanese army base before and during the war and the farming area is not too poor and does not begrudge the land used by the base.

In the evening [June 20] the Governor invited us to dinner with some of the farm officials of the prefecture and two farm women from different areas gave me a picture of farm conditions.

Sunday morning, June 21, at 8:30 in the rain we started out to visit farm areas piloted by Prof. Roger Martin who teaches in the University here half the year and the other half-year in southern Japan. He has taken a tremendous amount of interest during the past 7 years in the farm population. He told me he started talking to them about health, and what could be done on that score without spending money. There are three things from which the farm population suffers: stomach trouble caused by their constant bending forward, tuberculosis, and eye trouble. As an example of what he thinks might be done he told me that on an island in the South he had induced them to give up the habit when they drink their sake of passing their cups from one mouth to another and the TB has dropped considerably on the island, but in the North they have not as yet been willing to try it.

We saw two very beautiful old farm houses, three and four hundred years old, and in one the farm men and women had gathered for a meeting. They reported to me on their work and asked me questions on conditions in the US. One or two had been to the US and wanted to know if more people could not come here to look over the situation and advise them. In the other old farmhouse they showed me how they pound the rice which they use on New Year’s and on days of celebration and thy also showed me the baskets in which they put the babies for sake keeping but the Japanese doctor who was with us said he strongly advised against these baskets and he hoped his advice had reduced the use for they were damp and unhealthy for the child.

The open hearth fire which they sit around and over which a kettle hangs from a bamboo pole makes the atmosphere rather smoky and the child rubs its eyes and this is one of the causes which lead to eye trouble.

There seemed to be many organizations however for young people and even though I saw one very poor farmhouse where the man of the family was dead and the woman was doing most of the work on the farm, I still felt that advances are being made along many lines.

What mud there is at this season, however! We slipped and sloshed through it but only their clogs and the habit of taking their shoes off before they come in can keep the houses clean.

Returning to Tokyo for her last days in Japan, June 22-24, Roosevelt made four recordings for radio broadcasts, spoke at a luncheon sponsored by the America Japan Society, and visited the office and staff of the Japanese cultural exchange committee which had sponsored her visit.

Afterwards [June 22] I spent a half hour with Mr. Ichimada, governor of the Bank of Japan, at his office. This is a very fine building, reminiscent of some of the government buildings in Paris. Mr. Ichimada is the recognized authority on the economic problems of Japan and I found it a great privilege to have this short time to hear what his solutions to some of these economic problems are. He feels the development of power in this country is a pre-requisite to the development of their industrial potential and he says that ways and means must be found to increase the production of power. Japan’s export trade must increase, particularly to Southeast Asia and anything we can do to increase the purchasing power of such countries as Burma, Thailand and Indonesia is indirectly a service to Japan in the end…

In the evening I had a round table discussion with publicists and journalists which proved very interesting as two of the guests have just returned from the U.S. One of them was discussing McCarthyism when I cam in. He wondered whether McCarthy would not do to us in the US what Hitler had done to Germany. The impression created by our valiant Senator is that he desires to become a dictator deciding what should be said and thought by all the people with the borders of the U.S…

I had a visit in the afternoon from some people who are deeply disturbed by the use the Communists are making of certain Pacific War films which are being exported from the US and shown here. They are money-making films but, unfortunately, the reaction is anything but helpful to friendly relations between Japan and the U.S. More of these films are going to be produced in the near future, I am told. I don’t question but what our Hollywood producers will make money but I doubt if it is a service to the U.S. to remind people of what has divided us in the past when we are trying to build friendly relations for the future.

I had two newspaper interviews on Tuesday, [June 23] both lengthy and very enlightening to me since I did some of the questioning as well as being questioned…

I met many of the correspondents and their wives on Monday, who represent different newspapers and magazines here, Colliers, the Christian Science Monitor, Newsweek, and Mrs. Sherrod whose husband [journalist Robert Sherrod] is in Korea just now for the Saturday Evening Post. They have settled down here and one of them told me he had been here seven years which means he has really acquired a good deal of knowledge of the country.

Wednesday [June 24], our very last day in Tokyo, was a full day. Our Ambassador, Mr. Allison [John Allison], came for me at 10:15 a.m. to go over for an audience with the Emperor and Empress. We were greeted at the entrance to the palace by the usual photographer who wanted us to stand by our car before going up the steps.

I think we were given a rather unusually long time with their Majesties as it was 11:30 before we came out but I found the conversation very interesting and in many ways significant and helpful to me in understanding the way in which Royalty in Japan views its obligations.

Both their Majesties were kind and gracious and I felt this was a particular privilege which rounded out the many opportunities I had had to meet the people of Japan [see Roosevelt’s account of the visit with the Imperial Couple elsewhere on this site].

I lunched with the Ambassador and his staff some of whom have spent many years in Japan and some of whom have been traveling around Japan. Mr. Glenn Shaw who explained the Kabuki play to us, gave me some very interesting background which must not be forgotten in looking at present-day Japan. One is apt only to think back to the last period before the war when the militarists took control, and forget that there was a period before when Japan was very international minded and when a great many of her people believed it was of value to make friends in the world. During that period a real change began in the development of democratic practices and their aspirations of the women were stirring all through those days so that today we are only seeing a revival of interest in democracy and freedom which did exist in the period before the militarists took control.

There is only one broadcasting station which has a TV studio in Japan and sets are still very expensive so they are usually found in restaurants and public places. Very few private individuals own them. When I think of the number of small homes at home over which you see the aerial for a TV set, it seems odd to think that in any country there is only one small studio for producing TV shows [Television broadcasting had begun in Japan only that year].

Typescripts of draft columns, with corrections in Roosevelt’s handwriting, and final typescripts; Eleanor Roosevelt Collection, Franklin D. Roosevelt Library and Museum, Hyde Park, New York.