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]