Hiroshima City Redevelopment

The planning division of the city of Hiroshima gave a presentation about the reconstruction of Hiroshima after the atomic bomb.

The city of Hiroshima has current days a population of 1,19 million people and is located in a delta formed by the Otagawa river flowing into the Seto inland sea.

August 6. 1945 the atomic bomb fell on Hiroshima. In the radius of 2 km everything was collapsed and burned. The Aioi bridge was the target of the bomb because of its T-shape, the bomb fell a few meters from the bridge. The bomb resultaed in the dead of 2/3 of the population of Hiroshima.

After the bomb houses were built in a simple way from the left over materials. To rebuild the city properly the taxes were not sufficient. Money from the government was needed, however because of the war more cities needed this money. To get money from the government a plan needed to be formed. A new law was constructed. ‘The Hiroshima peace memorial city construction law’. The goal of this law was symbolising world peace and facilitating cultural facilities. This law supplied the needed money.

Nakajima area was the busiest centre of Hiroshima before the bomb and was located near the hypocentre. This area was completely destroyed and now turned into the peace memorial park. Every year a peace memorial ceremony is held here.

The city redevelopment wanted more green in the city. There for multiple parks and other green were applied in the new design. An example are the green riverbanks. After the bomb illegal houses were built on the river site, in 1969 these were removed and green riverbanks were placed. Now a days there is 26 km of green riverbanks, to goal is to expand this to 48 km.

To supply more green and honour the peace memorial the peace boulevard was constructed. The peace boulevard is a long road across Hiroshima. The road is wide with on both sides a wide area of trees. This area was created in two years and 6000 trees were received from other municipalities. On this boulevard every year the flower festival is held.

In the Motomachi area the housing supply was limited. After the bomb simple houses were built. These houses were not enough, so houses were built on the river bank. This area was known as the atomic bomb slum. Because the houses needed to be removed for the green river banks, large apartment buildings  were built. 3000 apartments were built in the Motomachi area.

Today there are a lot of tall buildings in Hiroshima. The Aioi-Dori street forms the main street and Hon-dori street the shopping street. In Hiroshima Mitsubishi and Masda are located which is beneficial for the economy. Mitsubishi produces airplane parts and Masda is a large car fabricant.