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]

  1. ^ NHK Peace Archives Archived 2008-10-10 at the Wayback Machine. Japan Broadcasting Corporation. Accessed February 29, 2008.
  2. ^ a b "We Shall Bring Forth New Life". City of Hiroshima. Archived from the original on 21 July 2007. Retrieved 28 February 2008.
  3. ^ a b "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.