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City of Hiroshima begins excavation of former Nakajima district with heavy machinery

by Junji Akechi, Staff Writer

On May 24, the City of Hiroshima began excavating a section of the former Nakajima district with heavy machinery. The Nakajima district was located in the area that is now the Peace Memorial Park and was destroyed by the atomic bomb. The examination of the greenbelt to the north of the main building of the Peace Memorial Museum will continue until late July with the aim of researching and displaying the unearthed remains to the public.

The excavation site consists of 25 square meters to the west of the former Tenjin-machi-suji area. In this location was once a lumber dealer, homes, and other buildings. Through this excavation work, the city is seeking to find the buried remains of households and houses of that time and examine their condition. Such artifacts, if found, will help shed light on the lives of ordinary people in those days. On May 24, heavy machinery was used to dig as far as 30 centimeters in order to remove the hard soil on the surface of the ground. Starting on May 27, the workers will dig by hand to locate the surface that existed at the time of the atomic bombing. It is believed that this earlier surface will be found at a depth of around 60 centimeters.

The city government intends to display the remains of the area in fiscal year 2020. Haruaki Nakagawa, the director of the A-bomb Experience Preservation Division of the City of Hiroshima, said, “We are hoping to get more detailed information that was not obtained through the exploratory excavation (in which a groove was dug into the ground) and make use of this information in devising a plan for the exhibition.

(Originally published on May 25, 2019)

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