This tree is one of three bombed camphors in the grounds of what is nowadays Nagasaki Prefectural Nagasaki Nishi High School.

Keiho Middle School was established in the year 1923. Trees were planted all along the slopes of the hill leading up to the school gates, a hill popularly known as "Chikoku Saka", or literally "late for school hill."

However, with the exception of a few trees, the majority of them were opposite the hypocenter and were knocked over at their bases, blocking the road. Photographs taken around two month after the bombing show the trees and the vicinity in a totally uprooted and devastated state, no different from when the bomb had just exploded and portraying the ferocity of the blast wave emanating from the hypocenter.

This camphor tree left today had its branches and leaves blown away, but its tremendous vitality led to the growth of new buds and it has recovered.