STORYWALK
Hiroshima: 600 Meters Overhead
August 6, 1945 — what happened here
Hear each place’s story in English — about a minute per chapter, right where it happened. An iPhone app.
Before you walk, that morning.
The walk ahead runs about 800 meters, north to south, through the center of Hiroshima.
At 8:15 on the morning of August 6, 1945, the first atomic bomb ever used in war exploded in this city.
You will begin at the Atomic Bomb Dome, a building left as little more than its framework. It stood right beside the hypocenter, and even so its center did not collapse. Why it did not, I will tell you in front of that framework.
As you walk south from there, what that single bomb did appears in order of time. What happened, nine years later, to a child who was two when the bomb fell and who grew up healthy, without a scratch. A register of names, kept beneath a stone arch, still growing eighty years on. And a building that became a World Heritage Site not as Japan's monument, but as a monument belonging to all humanity.
This is a place of mourning. Please walk slowly and quietly. When you take your first step, begin by standing in front of that framework.
From the Dome, straight south.
Start at Genbaku Dome-mae tram stop (Hiroden) and walk the chapters in order.
Walk in the order of the numbers. On the day, the app guides you to each next chapter.
4 chapters
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01 ・ 2 min walk from the stationAtomic Bomb Dome, the Former Hiroshima Prefectural Industrial Promotion Hall
August 6, 1945, 8:15 a.m.Across the bridge, what came ten years later is waiting.
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02 ・ 5 min walk from the last chapterThe Children's Peace Monument
1955 — what came nine years laterWalk south, and you reach the place where the names are kept.
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03 ・ 3 min walk from the last chapterCenotaph for the A-bomb Victims and the Flame of Peace
From 1952, and still todayThe building standing directly ahead is the final chapter.
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04 ・ 2 min walk from the last chapterHiroshima Peace Memorial Museum, Main Building
1996 — a monument belonging to all humanity
Stand there, and you’ll hear it.
Look up at the sky. Far above this framework — about 600 meters up. It was 8:15 on the morning of August 6, 1945. The first atomic bomb in human history, dropped by an American B-29 bomber, exploded there — in the air, not on the ground. The hypocenter lies about 160 meters to the southeast of this building, a distance Hiroshima City describes as extremely close. The building in front of you was already standing here that morning. Its name was the Hiroshima Prefectural Industrial Promotion Hall, an exhibition hall for industrial products, topped with a round dome. Caught in the blast and the heat rays, the building was wrecked and burned out. And yet its center did not fall. Why is it still standing, 160 meters from the hypocenter?
The rest is in the app. Chapter one is free.
Time, fees and getting there
- Start
- About a 2-minute walk from the Genbaku Dome-mae tram stop on the Hiroshima Electric Railway
- Time
- About 0.8 km on foot, about 2 hours including the museum, or about 1 hour for the outdoor sites only
SourcesNon-fiction, based on official sources.
City of Hiroshima (official site) ／ Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum (official site)
Hear this story where it happened.
iPhone app — coming soon. Chapter one is free.