| Description |
In the right foreground is the completely destroyed Hiroshima Electric Railway Company's Yagurashita substation. The T-shaped Aioi Bridge was the target of the atomic bombing. The strong blast and pressure destroyed almost all parapets and caused cracks between the roadway and sidewalk. The Hiroshima Electric Railway streetcar tracks were also displaced. Center left is the school building of Honkawa National Elementary School (although severely damaged and nothing remained inside, it was used as a temporary relief station to accommodate victims beginning the next day, and classes resumed in February of the next year). Kodo School is above it in the frame, and the West Branch of the Hiroshima Central Telephone Office is off to the right in the distance. Shigeo Hayashi, then 27, was a still photographer in the physics group of the investigation team organized by the Special Committee for the Investigation of Atomic Bomb Damages. From October 1 to 10, he took photos in Hiroshima, amid rumors of the threat of residual radiation. In order to convey the devastation of Hiroshima caused by a single bomb, 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), located 260 meters from the hypocenter. |
