A city rebuilt from the ashes: Now-and-then images reveal how Hiroshima has become a modern metropolis 70 years after it was devastated by an atomic bomb 

  • Atomic bomb dropped on Japanese city at 8.16am on August 6, 1945 
  • It would eventually kill 140,000 people and destroy 90 per cent of Hiroshima
  • But the next spring, flowers began to bloom again - and people returned
  • Hiroshima is now a thriving modern metropolis of 1.2million people  

By Flora Drury For Mailonline

Published: 06:42 EST, 5 August 2015 | Updated: 12:35 EST, 5 August 2015

The pictures of the modern metropolis - complete with soaring towers and bullet trains - give little hint of what happened 70 years before. 

The only obvious testament to the horror of what occurred here on August 6, 1945, is the skeletal dome - the only building left standing near the epicentre of the bomb which left 140,000 dead.

In the intervening decades, the Atomic Bomb Dome has been carefully preserved as the city rose from the ashes around it.

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Now and then: The Atomic Bomb Dome was the only building to survive near the epicentre of the bomb, dropped on Hiroshima on August 6, 1945, destroying some 90 per cent of the city
The dome in the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park today
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Now and then: The Atomic Bomb Dome was the only building to survive near the epicentre of the bomb, dropped on Hiroshima on August 6, 1945, destroying some 90 per cent of the city

Phoenix: A new city rose from the ashes, however, and it is now a buzzing modern metropolis

Phoenix: A new city rose from the ashes, however, and it is now a buzzing modern metropolis

Survival: By the end of 1945, 140,000 people had died as a result of the bomb, out of a city of 350,000. Today, the population of Hiroshima has risen to 1.2million
Today, the population of Hiroshima has risen to 1.2million
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Survival: By the end of 1945, 140,000 people had died as a result of the bomb, out of a city of 350,000. Today, the population of Hiroshima has risen to 1.2million. Pictured: The��Yorozuyo Bridge, with the blast marks on the ground, left, and the same bridge today, right

Photographer Eugene Hoshiko, who grew up in Yokohama, on the otherside of Japan, travelled to Hiroshima to see for himself what had become of the city he had seen so many pictures of over the years.

He was amazed by what he saw.

'The city I found was very much rebuilt and alive, with a population today of 1.2million,' said Hoshiko.

'The streetcars are packed again. The stark wasteland seen in the black-and-white photos taken soon after the bombing is but a memory.'

Very little of the city which existed before August 6, 1945, survived the bomb dropped by the Americans.

About 90 per cent of Hiroshima was destroyed, and 140,000 out of its 350,000 residents had died by the end of the year, as a result of radiation poisoning. 

Three days later, another atomic bomb was dropped on Nagasaki, killing another 80,000 and forcing the Japanese to surrender - finally bringing to an end the Second World War.

Like Hiroshima, it to has had to rebuild itself from the ground up.

Reconstruction: It was rumoured nothing would grow in the city at first, but then, the next spring, the flowers began to bloom again - and people decided to return to the devastated city and rebuild

Reconstruction: It was rumoured nothing would grow in the city at first, but then, the next spring, the flowers began to bloom again - and people decided to return to the devastated city and rebuild

Past: The ruins of the Nagasaki Medical College
Where the medical college stood, pictured on July 31, 2015
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Past: 'The stark wasteland seen in the black-and-white photos taken soon after the bombing is but a memory,' said photographer Eugene Hoshiko, who wanted to see the city for himself. Pictured: The ruins of the Nagasaki Medical College, and the same place today. The city was hit three days later

The biggest surprise, it seems, was the size of the Atomic Bomb Dome, which had always loomed large in his mind. 

'It wasn't as big as I had imagined. Then I thought, the building itself may be small, but its meaning is huge to all of us human beings,' said Hoshiko.

'A young couple passed by the dome, hand-in-hand. Before the atomic bomb, did many couples walk by like them?' 

 

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