On August 6, 1945, at 8:15 a.m., the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima. The Labor and Materials Departments, located near the hypocenter of the blast, were instantly destroyed, and the Head Office Factory, situated 2.3 km from the hypocenter, also suffered massive damage. Postwar investigations revealed that 54 of our employees fell victim to the atomic bombing, 36 of whom lost their lives on the very day the bomb was dropped.

Although the atomic bomb destroyed 80% of the Head Office Factory, the Itsukaichi and Iwakuni Factories remained intact. Consequently, immediately after the end of the war, we pivoted to peacetime industries. We put materials that had been intended for military production to work to manufacture items such as laundry soap, toothpaste, shoe polish, buckets, wooden pails, tea canisters, matches, and fertilizers. In addition to these efforts, we made up for the shortage of daily necessities suffered by our employees by producing salt and cultivating crops using scrap materials and parts of our factory grounds.

A major blow to our company, which had just begun its postwar reconstruction, was the termination of wartime compensation. This involved a 100% tax on the payments the government had promised during the war, which effectively amounted to the cancellation of those debts. As a munitions company with substantial receivables, our financial standing was brought to the brink of crisis. The Law Concerning Emergency Measures for Company Accounts was promulgated in August 1946 to bail out companies that had been cut off from wartime compensation. Designated as a Special Accounting Company, we formulated a reconstruction and reorganization plan to handle extraordinary losses, and it was ultimately decided that we would complete our reconstruction by merging the old and new accounts.

The demand for coatings skyrocketed as postwar reconstruction progressed. However, procuring raw materials remained difficult. A system was introduced under which materials were obtained in exchange for coupons, with allocations based on the production capacity of each factory. Producers were required to collect coupons from their customers to acquire materials. To secure these coupons, we were forced to accept harsh conditions, such as extending the settlement periods for promissory notes. Coupled with the severe inflation and financial stringency of the time, our cash flow rapidly deteriorated.