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Documenting Hiroshima of 1945: In October, fruit burned on side facing hypocenter

by Kyosuke Mizukawa, Senior Staff Writer

In October 1945, plants in the city area of Hiroshima bore distinctive traces of thermal rays from the atomic bombing. The phenomenon was captured on camera by Nippon Eigasha (Japan Movie Co.) and the person in charge of still photography, Shunkichi Kikuchi, while they accompanied a team conducting a scientific survey of the city.

Around three kilometers northwest of the hypocenter, near Koi National School (present-day Koi Elementary School, in Hiroshima’s Nishi Ward), effects from the thermal rays were confirmed on a bitter orange, called a “daidai” in Japanese, in the garden of a private residence. The fruit was burned on the side facing the hypocenter. Around 2.7 kilometers southeast of the hypocenter, at Hiroshima Hish School umder the former education system (present-day Hiroshima University), traces of the thermal rays remained on holly leaves. The parts of the holly plant that had been shielded by other leaves were unaffected, while the unshielded areas were left with burns.

(Originally published on October 28, 2024)

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