Bringing Forth New Life

Bringing Forth New Life (生ましめんかな, Umashimen kana) is a poem by Sadako Kurihara written in August 1945 in Hiroshima after the city's atomic bombing.^[1] It tells the true story of a woman giving birth to a baby amongst the ruins, while the midwife dies of burns and exhaustion in the process. This poem was first published in March 1946 in Chugoku Shimbun.^[2] The baby was named Kazuko Kojima (小嶋和子) and is still living in Hiroshima as of 2023.^[3][4] The midwife was Umeyo Miyoshi (三好梅代).^[3]

Alternate English titles for the poem are We Shall Bring Forth New Life^[2] and Let Us Be Midwives!^[5]

References

1. NHK Peace Archives Archived 2008-10-10 at the Wayback Machine. Japan Broadcasting Corporation. Accessed February 29, 2008.
2. "We Shall Bring Forth New Life". City of Hiroshima. Archived from the original on 21 July 2007. Retrieved 28 February 2008.
3. "ヒバクシャ：2023・冬／上 小嶋和子さん（77） つながれた命、感謝を詩に". 毎日新聞 (in Japanese). Retrieved 2024-01-24.
4. "Woman born 2 days after Hiroshima atomic bombing grateful for connected life". Mainichi Daily News. 2023-02-21. Retrieved 2024-01-24.
5. Ammons, Elizabeth; Roy, Modhumita, eds. (2015). Sharing the Earth. An International Environmental Justice Reader. University of Georgia Press. p. 203. ISBN 9780820347707.