This building, The Hiroshima Prefectural Industrial Promotional Hall, was completed in April 1915 under the design and supervision of Czech arhitect Jan Letzel image
. At 8:15 AM, August 6, 1945, the atomic bomb exploded at an altitude of 580 meters approximately 160 meters southeast of the Industrial Promotion Hall, instantly killing everyone inside the building which was seriouly damaged and completely burned out. This is all that is left. . . image
In December 1996 this structure was added to the UNESCO World Heritage List as reminder to the entire world of the horrors of the atomic bomb and as a symbol of global peace.

After the blast, thousands of bodies which could not be identified were dragged to this location near the center of the blast and cremated on the spot in order to stop the stench of the rotting. This mound contains the ashes of 70,000 unidentified people. image

The Cenotaph for the A-bomb Victims, built in 1952 contains 79 volumes listing more than 226,000 names of people killed by the atomic bomb. (Approximately 140,000 of them died by the end of December 1945.) image

This is the gravestone of Kunai Okamoto, an elder councillor to the Asano House of the Hiroshima Fief. The gravestone has been standing here, in what was oncet the compound of Jisenji Temple, since the time of Okamoto's death in 1689. The capstone was toppled by the atomic blast and never repaired. image

Throughout the town, photographs display the destruction of the bomb. image

Copywrited, Brian Marriott, 2002, 2003
Click here to return to marriottmd.com photo homepage