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New map of atomic bombing of Hiroshima is produced

by Masami Nishimoto, Senior Staff Writer

Yoshihiko Takesaki, 52, a member of a study group involving the A-bomb materials of Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum, has created a map of the atomic bombing by superimposing aerial photos of the ruins of the city taken five days after the blast over a present-day map. With the use of a geographical information system (GIS), the map focuses on the devastated area, which was extended to within a radius of nearly 2 kilometers from the hypocenter.

Mr. Takesaki's expertise is geography. He created the map based on aerial photos taken by the U.S. military he obtained from the United States National Archives and Records Administration in 2002 when he belonged to Hiroshima University's Research Institute for Radiation Biology and Medicine.

He digitalized the detailed images captured from an altitude of nearly 7500 meters on August 11, 1945 (nearly 23 centimeters x 46 centimeters each). Using the GIS, he assigned latitude and longitude to the images, superimposing them on the coordinates of Digital Map 2500 (Spatial Data Infrastructure) published by the the Geospatial Information Authority of Japan (GSI), putting in the border lines of the city districts and the city blocks inside the border lines onto the images of the ruins.

In addition, referring to such books as "A-bombed Buildings Speak," published in 1996 by the City of Hiroshima, Mr. Takesaki confirmed the location of existing A-bombed buildings, relics, and monuments built by schools and groups, as well as plaques which provide explanation of how those particular places suffered in the blast, then put a total of 111 such locations on the map. The map conveys the horrific power of the atomic bomb, due to which an estimated 130,000 to 150,000 people were dead by the end of 1945. Within the 2-kilometer radius of the hypocenter alone, 43,340 houses were leveled and completely destroyed.

Mr. Takesaki hopes that people visiting Hiroshima will make use of the map by venturing to areas apart from Peace Memorial Park, other sites where the scars of the bombing remain and vows for peace are made. He is also planning to add A-bombed trees and other monuments to the map, which he could not include this time.

(Originally published on July 31, 2010)

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