Rare footage shows daily life in Hiroshima before the atomic bomb was dropped on it
Cherry blossoms, beautifully intricate kimonos and people serenely paddling across a river — a new video paints an idyllic picture of how life was like in Hiroshima, before the city was destroyed by an atomic bomb in World War II.
The video, shot by a Hiroshima resident some 10 years before the bombing, is the only footage owned by the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum that depicts the area before 1945.
The 16mm film footage cost almost $8,000 to digitise.
In August 1945, the U.S. dropped two atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki — the only recorded use of nuclear weapons during a period of war — killing an estimated 146,000 people in Hiroshima, and another 80,000 in Nagasaki.
Just six days after the second bomb was dropped on Nagasaki, Japan announced its surrender to the Allied nations.
The use of the bomb remains controversial, and many of both cities' residents suffered radiation sickness and other related injuries for years after.
