The National Mobilization Law of 1938 brought schools into the war structure. In 1941, elementary and middle schools even became "national schools." These were lower level schools (six years) corresponding to the present elementary schools and upper level schools (two years) corresponding to the present junior high schools.
When the war intensified, students in grades 3-6 of lower level schools in urban areas were forcibly evacuated to the countryside to spare them from air attacks.
Thus, the children who fell victim to the atomic bombing were 1st and 2nd graders, who were considered too young to leave their parents, and students in upper level schools who were working on building demolition. (At this time, summer vacation was from August 10 to August 20.)
The actual number of national school children and teachers lost to the atomic bombing is unknown, but the toll for teachers is estimated at around 200 and for students, around 2000.
The monument was erected not only to mourn the children and teachers that perished in the bombing, but to express the will to spread in the present and in future the following peace message: "We must not allow a third atomic bombing." For these purposes, each year on August 4, many bereaved families, representatives of elementary and junior high schools in Hiroshima City, and educators gather at the monument to hold a memorial service.
"The heavy bone must be a teacher's. The small skulls beside it must be students gathered around." This tanka poem was taken from Sange, a collection of poems by Shinoe Shoda. Out of sight of the occupation army, Shoda secretly published the collection in the Printing Division of the Hiroshima Prison in 1946. The poem expresses anger on behalf of the children who─clinging to their teachers─died in the conflagration; and for the teachers who perished while trying to protect them.