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The hollowed-out remains of Hiroshima’s Genbaku (A-bomb) Dome look eerily the same as they did 78 years ago, when the American military detonated an atomic bomb over this Japanese city – the first ever used in war.
Unleashed early in the morning on August 6, 1945, it killed thousands of people instantly; some vaporized in temperatures reaching 3,000 to 4,000 degrees Celsius.
Within the bomb’s hypocenter, only the half-exploded Genbaku Dome – formerly the Hiroshima Prefectural Industrial Promotion Hall – was left standing as the bombing razed Hiroshima city to the ground.
To this day, it’s a stark reminder to all who live and visit of the devastating impact of war.
Though the city’s backdrop may serve as a symbolic reminder of the atrocities of warfare, tourists and delegates visiting for the G7 Summit between May 19 and 21, would’ve found a modern city teeming with shops, parks and businesses.
From 2015 to 2019 the annual number of foreign visitors to Hiroshima surpassed 1 million, with the city welcoming 1.8 million overseas visitors in 2019. In the wake of the pandemic, numbers are quickly going up as tourists return to Japan.
Meanwhile, Hiroshima has earned itself the title of Japan’s “manufacturing prefecture,” making everything from automobiles and ships to electric machinery and components.
Indeed, with a population of one million people, Hiroshima embodies resilience against the odds. However, some locals say that though the city promotes a message of peace, its complex relationship with history must also be noted.
“When visitors from overseas come to Hiroshima, they tell me they’re going to the Peace Museum and Park. They have the idea that Hiroshima is a city of peace. Still, I’d like them to be aware that this city also owed much of its initial development as a military hub,” Hiroshi Ishida, a bar owner and third-generation A-bomb survivor in Hiroshima, told CNN.
Castle town turned military hub
Hiroshima was among several large castle towns of the Edo period (1603-1867).
During the Meiji Restoration, Japan underwent a period of modernization, and in 1888, the city became the base for the Fifth Division Headquarters of the Imperial Japanese Army.
