Documenting Hiroshima 80 years after A-bombing: In September 1960, A-bomb Dome stands marked by tragedy as city’s recovery moves forward
Apr. 7, 2025
by Minami Yamashita, Staff Writer
In September 1960, 15 years after the atomic bombing, Koshi Akeda, a photographer from Kure City who died in 2015 at the age of 92, aimed his camera at the cityscape of Hiroshima from the rooftop of the Hiroshima Chamber of Commerce and Industry (in the city’s present-day Naka Ward). In 1948, after being demobilized from the war, Mr. Akeda had opened a photo studio in Hiroshima, recording with his camera scenes of progress of the city’s recovery.
Peace Memorial Park gradually became a dominant green space after removal of the makeshift shacks that had once stood there. The Hiroshima Municipal Baseball Stadium, completed in 1957 on the east side of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry, brought vitality to the city as the home field for the Hiroshima Carp baseball team. Amid Hiroshima’s reimagining as a “city of peace,” the A-bomb Dome continued to communicate the horrors of that day, August 6, 1945. Children who had been made to endure severe hardship at a young age were just then entering adolescence.
(Originally published on April 7, 2025)
In September 1960, 15 years after the atomic bombing, Koshi Akeda, a photographer from Kure City who died in 2015 at the age of 92, aimed his camera at the cityscape of Hiroshima from the rooftop of the Hiroshima Chamber of Commerce and Industry (in the city’s present-day Naka Ward). In 1948, after being demobilized from the war, Mr. Akeda had opened a photo studio in Hiroshima, recording with his camera scenes of progress of the city’s recovery.
Peace Memorial Park gradually became a dominant green space after removal of the makeshift shacks that had once stood there. The Hiroshima Municipal Baseball Stadium, completed in 1957 on the east side of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry, brought vitality to the city as the home field for the Hiroshima Carp baseball team. Amid Hiroshima’s reimagining as a “city of peace,” the A-bomb Dome continued to communicate the horrors of that day, August 6, 1945. Children who had been made to endure severe hardship at a young age were just then entering adolescence.
(Originally published on April 7, 2025)
