Yoko's Diary

1945 was a hard time to be a child in Japan. Many had seen their cities destroyed by US bombers. Food, fuel and materials were in short supply. Yet spirits remained high. In April 1945, Yoko Moriwaki started high school in Hiroshima, excited to be a prestigious ‘Kenjo’ girl, and full of duty. But the country was falling apart and in four months time her city would become the target for the first atomic bomb ever used as a weapon. In her diary, Yoko provides an account of that time – when conditions were so poor that children as young as twelve were required to work in industry; when fierce battles raged in the Pacific and children like Yoko believed victory was near.