Documenting Hiroshima of 1946: February 25, reconstruction council begins development of city plan
Feb. 25, 2025
by Maho Yamamoto, Staff Writer
On February 25, 1946, the inaugural meeting of a reconstruction council established by the Hiroshima City government was held at Hiroshima City Hall. The council, made up of 26 representatives from the local business community, heads of neighborhood associations, and senior city officials, embarked on the development of a city plan.
The meeting was held in the City Hall building, which was still standing after the fires that arose following the atomic bombing but through which cold winds blew. Among the council’s members were Jujiro Matsuda, president of Toyo Kogyo (present-day Mazda Motor Corporation), and Tsukasa Nitoguri, head of the federation of neighborhood associations in the city, with Wakami Fujita, former mayor of Hiroshima City, selected to serve as chair of the council.
According to the Chugoku Shimbun dated February 27 in which information was reported on the council’s inaugural meeting, a draft city plan was announced that included the creation of a 100-meter-wide road, running from Hijiyama Park (in Hiroshima’s present-day Minami Ward) to the Koi district (now in the city’s Nishi Ward), which was envisioned as a straight thoroughfare that could serve as a firebreak. The plan also included ideas involving construction of a park and memorial facilities in the area around the hypocenter. Those two proposals resulted in establishment of the city’s present-day Peace Boulevard and Peace Memorial Park. The plan also proposed the creation of approximately 1.32 square kilometers of green zone and the development of an international airport in the Yoshijima district (in Hiroshima’s present-day Naka Ward).
The goal was to increase the city’s population to 350,000 residents. According to a survey conducted by the city government in August that year, the estimated population of the city just prior to the atomic bombing had been 312,277 people, a number that had dropped dramatically to 136,518 by the time another survey was conducted on November 1, 1945, three months after the bombing.
According to the minutes of that initial reconstruction council meeting stored at the Hiroshima Municipal Archives, Yoshio Oyokota, a member of the Hiroshima City Council, insisted that “a road plan be drawn up immediately” to ensure that citizens could rebuild their homes. Mitsuma Matsumura, a permanent advisor to the council, demanded that the overall plan be “carefully studied, taking into account a variety of circumstances.”
On February 22, prior to the inaugural council meeting, Hiroshima Prefectural Governor Tsunei Kusunose held a discussion at the prefectural government offices, inviting 20 writers, educators, and artists to discuss rebuilding of the city in the form of a “reconstruction roundtable.”
An article in the newspaper’s February 24 edition reported that Yoko Ota, a writer who experienced the atomic bombing and died in 1963 at the age of 60, later publishing her well-known work Shikabane no Machi (in English, ‘City of corpses’), proposed making the city’s rivers the focal point of Hiroshima’s city plan. She wrote, “Hiroshima has always been plagued by the problem of water. The rivers represent a major challenge with respect to future development. Parks should be created in the form of green belts alongside all the rivers.” At the meeting, some members demanded the establishment of libraries and liberal arts universities.
(Originally published on February 25, 2025)
On February 25, 1946, the inaugural meeting of a reconstruction council established by the Hiroshima City government was held at Hiroshima City Hall. The council, made up of 26 representatives from the local business community, heads of neighborhood associations, and senior city officials, embarked on the development of a city plan.
The meeting was held in the City Hall building, which was still standing after the fires that arose following the atomic bombing but through which cold winds blew. Among the council’s members were Jujiro Matsuda, president of Toyo Kogyo (present-day Mazda Motor Corporation), and Tsukasa Nitoguri, head of the federation of neighborhood associations in the city, with Wakami Fujita, former mayor of Hiroshima City, selected to serve as chair of the council.
According to the Chugoku Shimbun dated February 27 in which information was reported on the council’s inaugural meeting, a draft city plan was announced that included the creation of a 100-meter-wide road, running from Hijiyama Park (in Hiroshima’s present-day Minami Ward) to the Koi district (now in the city’s Nishi Ward), which was envisioned as a straight thoroughfare that could serve as a firebreak. The plan also included ideas involving construction of a park and memorial facilities in the area around the hypocenter. Those two proposals resulted in establishment of the city’s present-day Peace Boulevard and Peace Memorial Park. The plan also proposed the creation of approximately 1.32 square kilometers of green zone and the development of an international airport in the Yoshijima district (in Hiroshima’s present-day Naka Ward).
The goal was to increase the city’s population to 350,000 residents. According to a survey conducted by the city government in August that year, the estimated population of the city just prior to the atomic bombing had been 312,277 people, a number that had dropped dramatically to 136,518 by the time another survey was conducted on November 1, 1945, three months after the bombing.
According to the minutes of that initial reconstruction council meeting stored at the Hiroshima Municipal Archives, Yoshio Oyokota, a member of the Hiroshima City Council, insisted that “a road plan be drawn up immediately” to ensure that citizens could rebuild their homes. Mitsuma Matsumura, a permanent advisor to the council, demanded that the overall plan be “carefully studied, taking into account a variety of circumstances.”
On February 22, prior to the inaugural council meeting, Hiroshima Prefectural Governor Tsunei Kusunose held a discussion at the prefectural government offices, inviting 20 writers, educators, and artists to discuss rebuilding of the city in the form of a “reconstruction roundtable.”
An article in the newspaper’s February 24 edition reported that Yoko Ota, a writer who experienced the atomic bombing and died in 1963 at the age of 60, later publishing her well-known work Shikabane no Machi (in English, ‘City of corpses’), proposed making the city’s rivers the focal point of Hiroshima’s city plan. She wrote, “Hiroshima has always been plagued by the problem of water. The rivers represent a major challenge with respect to future development. Parks should be created in the form of green belts alongside all the rivers.” At the meeting, some members demanded the establishment of libraries and liberal arts universities.
(Originally published on February 25, 2025)
