FOUR ONE SIX

ofanotherfashion:

In May 1955, twenty-five women who were injured by the atomic bomb the U.S. dropped on Hiroshima on 6 August 1945 were flown to New York to undergo reconstructive surgery. The women became known in the press as the “Hiroshima Maidens.” Many of these women, including Tadako Emori, Yoshie Enokawa, Hideko Hirata, and Toyoko Morita were gifted dressmakers who spent their time in the U.S. refining their sewing and business skills, selling their designs, and creating a transnational name for themselves among American consumers.

Morita enrolled in the Parsons School of Design and worked two days each week at the posh department store, Bergdorf Goodman. After earning her degree from Parsons, she returned to Japan to open up her own design company, Toyo Haute Couture. The company was highly successful. Later in her career, Morita also taught dressmaking classes. In the above photo, Morita is standing in front of her shop, third from the left. The other women pictured are her employees, many of whom were disabled (a hiring policy she implemented as a result of her own experience.)

To find out more about the Hiroshima Maidens, see this link and also David Serlin’s chapter on the Hiroshima Maidens in his book, Replaceable You: Engineering the Body in Postwar America (University of Chicago Press, 2004) in which he discusses the relations of injury and beauty. Rodney Barker also wrote a biography about them called, The Hiroshima Maidens: A Story of Courage, Compassion, and Survival (Viking Press 1985).

Thanks go to Thy Phu (Ontario, Canada) for cluing me to this intriguing history of fashion, war, reconstruction, and New York City’s own Parsons School of Design.