| Description |
Diagonally in the foreground is the Hiroden streetcar track. The block to its right is Sarugaku-cho; to its right, Saiku-machi. The second street from the top is Otemachi Street. Above, along the north-south Otemachi streetcar track are, from left, the destroyed Daido Life Insurance Company, Hiroshima Branch; Geibi Bank Head Office; Sumitomo Bank, Hiroshima Branch (the “human shadow stone,” currently at Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum, was to the right of the front stairs); the Hiroshima branches of Chiyoda Life Insurance Company and Yasuda Life Insurance Company; Mitsui & Co., Hiroshima Office; Norinchukin Bank Hiroshima Branch; Hiroshima Central Telephone Office; Sanwa Bank, Hiroshima Branch; Fukuromachi National Elementary School (after the bombing, students and teachers left messages on the walls. Shunkichi Kikuchi took photographs of them. The building was dismantled in 2000, except for a preserved portion); Meiji Life Insurance Company, Hiroshima Branch; and Hiroshima Fukokukan. Far right-center is the hypocenter (Shima Hospital), and to the right is West Police Station. In the rear are Hijiyama and Ogonzan mountains. Shigeo Hayashi, 27, was a still photographer of the physics group of the Special Committee for the Investigation of Atomic Bomb Damages. He took a 360-degree panorama in 16 shots from the observation tower of the Hiroshima Prefectural Commerce Association (today’s Hiroshima Chamber of Commerce and Industry), 260 meters from the hypocenter. |
