The Atom Bomb Dome in Hiroshima, What is its significance?

There is a dome in Hiroshima. It is called Genbaku Dome which means Atom Bomb Dome. At the end of World War II, at 8:15 on the 6th of August 1945, The US military used the world’s first nuclear weapon “Little Boy” against Hiroshima City in Japan. We are the only country in the world to have ever been affected by an atomic bomb. You can still see how it destroyed the city.

This memorial monument shows the devastation that Hiroshima suffered after the drop of the atomic bomb. Although it is registered as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, the history that is represents is heartbreaking.The dome was built as a facility for exhibiting and selling local products in Hiroshima Prefecture in Taisho 4 (1915), and several events such as the Hiroshima prefecture art exhibitions were held there.

https://www.hiroshima-navi.or.jp/post/006276.html

It was designed by the Czech architect Jan Letzul, so it was a rare European-style building for Japan at the time. The structure was made using bricks and steel frames.

The atomic bomb exploded about 160 meters south east and at an altitude of about 600 meters from the Dome. The blast stormed tremendously and the building was wrecked, but its blast was in the vertical direction, so the center miraculously avoided from collapsing. Unfortunately, all the people in the building died instantly. It is now a symbol that appeals to the world beyond the age of the importance of abolition of nuclear weapons and permanent peace.

Shigeo Hayashi/Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum

Within 500 metres of the central explosion, flash and shock waves hit almost simultaneously. A huge blast pressure destroyed the majority of the building in a blink of an eye, all the wooden buildings were completely destroyed. Due to this nuclear attack, Between 90 – 166 thousand out of the 350 thousand population in Hiroshima city are said to have died within 2 – 4 months from the atomic bomb. The number of bomb survivors reached 560,000. To this day, there are still survivors living, however there are only a few people who can talk about their actual experiences. 

First of all, the US government has announced that atomic bombs were used for avoiding direct landing in Japan during the Pacific War and settle as soon as possible. Why it was Hiroshima?

The US military had determined the conditions for deciding where to drop the atomic bomb. It had an urban area of sufficient size to accurately measure the destructive power of the atomic bomb, that it was a large city with a population exceeding 1 million, that there were numerous displaced people, many small military factories existed.

As a result, Hiroshima was chosen as one of the candidate sites. Although Kyoto was also nominated as a temporary candidate site temporarily. However, Kyoto which had many traditional buildings is a very important city for Japan, so the US military eventually removed it from the candidate site list, to facilitate relations with Japan after the attack. 

And the time had come. Atomic bomb dropped in Hiroshima City on August 6, 1945.