Japanese authorities have identified an atomic bomb victim for the first time thanks to a DNA analysisthey announced this Monday, this is the first time that the use of this technique with vestiges of the tragedy has given a positive result.
The victim was identified as Hatsue Kajiyama, a 13 year old girl who disappeared after the US bombing of Hiroshima on August 6, 1945 and whose remains were preserved in the Peace Memorial Park facilities in the western Japanese city along with those of 70,000 other unclaimed victims over those 80 years.
THE Hatsue’s remainswhich exceptionally contained hair samples, were kept under the name of Michiko Kajiyama, her younger sister.
The ashes would have remained stored in this state if not for Shuji Kajiyama, Hatsue’s sixty-year-old nephew, a resident of the nearby town of Fuchu, who suspected that the remains could belong to his aunt and asked the authorities to verify it.
So, between late November and early this month, Kanagawa Dental University extracted DNA from the preserved hair and compared it to that of Hatsue’s 91-year-old younger sister, confirming kinship and identity.
It is believed that young Hatsue may have been wearing clothing or items marked with her sister’s name on the day of the attack, which may have led to the error in cataloging his remains.
In what is called the Hiroshima Atomic Bomb Memorial Mound, the remains of around 70,000 victims unidentified, as well as 812 sets of remains whose names are known, but which have never been claimed. Among these ashes, in ten cases, the hair of the victims is preserved.
Local authorities plan to continue perform DNA analysis if the victims’ relatives request it in the future.
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