We’re here at ground zero in Hiroshima, by the Atomic Bomb Dome. The atomic bomb exploded about 600 meters above this area. Around 70,000 people were killed instantly, and by the end of 1945 the death toll had roughly doubled. This building was completed in 1915, about 30 years before the bombing, and was designed by a Czech architect. It still stands because of how the shock waves hit it, so the concrete frame wasn’t completely knocked over.
People out on the streets near here were killed instantly, but some inside strong concrete buildings, like banks, survived. One man, Tsutomu Yamaguchi, survived the Hiroshima blast, returned to work in Nagasaki, survived the second blast as well, and eventually passed away in his early nineties.
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