Glimpse of history: Yamaguchi demonstrating how to use a VR headset during his tour in Hiroshima. — AFP
Hiroshima: On a sunny street in Hiroshima, a tourist looks around but instead of seeing a bustling riverside, they face a scene of horror, with burning bodies and rising flames.
What they are seeing is part of a virtual reality tour that allows people to experience the city as it was before, during and after the atomic bomb attack on Aug 6, 1945.
It can be a disconcerting experience, but Hiroshi Yamaguchi, whose company recently began offering the tours, believes it can help people better understand the impact of the nuclear attack as well as the city that existed before it.
“I think even some people who live in Hiroshima don’t know that what is now the Peace Park used to be a proper town, where people were living,” the 44-year-old said.
“By seeing it not only in photography, but by also experiencing it immersively, it is easier to understand.”
The tour begins at what is now the Hiroshima Park Rest House, which was being used by the fuel-rationing union at the time of the bomb attack.
It was just 170m from the hypocentre, and all but one of the 37 people in the building at the time were killed.
The sole survivor was in the basement when the bomb hit, and the tour is based in part on what he saw when he emerged to scenes that haunted him for the rest of his life.
Overall, around 140,000 people perished in the attack and its aftermath.
Yamaguchi’s company Tabimachi Gate Hiroshima worked with archives from the city’s Peace Memorial Museum, a local newspaper and the testimonies of survivors to create segments of VR imagery for five stops around the peace park.
The tour, which lasts around one hour, with time afterwards for discussion, was launched in 2021. — AFP
