Aug 5, 2015

Last month, with a handful of black-and-white archival photos in hand, Associated Press photographer Eugene Hoshiko set out with my camera to document how Hiroshima had changed, 70 years after the atomic bomb. Below is an account of his experience, in his words.

: In this July 3, 2015 photo, a stray cat rests at now known as Atomic Bomb Dome in Hiroshima, western Japan. On Aug. 6, 1945, a U.S. plane dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima, the first nuclear weapon has been used in war. Japan surrendered on Aug. 15, ending World War II. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)

: In this July 5, 2015 photo, a woman rides a bicycle, about 2 kilometers (1.2 miles) north of now known as Atomic Bomb Dome, in Hiroshima, western Japan. On Aug. 6, 1945, a U.S. plane dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima, the first nuclear weapon has been used in war. Japan surrendered on Aug. 15, ending World War II. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)

: In this July 3, 2015 photo, the Atomic Bomb Dome, as it is known today is seen at dust in Hiroshima, western Japan. In the postwar effort to rebuild Hiroshima, the city decided to conserve the dome as it was in 1961, leaving it as an icon of the devastation in a city where such scars were quickly becoming invisible. The building was registered as a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1996 to call for a non-nuclear world and world peace. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)

: In this July 5, 2015 photo, a visitor stands near the symbolic “Thousand Cranes” near Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum in Hiroshima, western Japan. On Aug. 6, 1945, a U.S. plane dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima, the first nuclear weapon has been used in war. Japan surrendered on Aug. 15, ending World War II. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)

: In this July 4, 2015 photo, visitors walk in the rain next to now known as Atomic Bomb Dome in Hiroshima, western Japan. On Aug. 6, 1945, a U.S. plane dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima, the first nuclear weapon has been used in war. Japan surrendered on Aug. 15, ending World War II. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)

: In this July 5, 2015 photo, a man waits at a crossroad about 2 kilometers (1.2 miles) northeast of now known as Atomic Bomb Dome in Hiroshima, western Japan. On Aug. 6, 1945, a U.S. plane dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima, the first nuclear weapon has been used in war. Japan surrendered on Aug. 15, ending World War II. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)

: FILE – In this Aug. 6, 1945 file photo, shortly after the first atomic bomb ever used in warfare was dropped by the United States over the Japanese city of Hiroshima, survivors are seen as they receive emergency treatment by military medics in Hiroshima, Japan. The explosion instantly killed more than 60,000 people, with ten of thousands others dying later from effects of the radioactive fallout. (AP Photo)

: In this July 4, 2015 photo, two persons walk in the rain near the ground zero of 1945 A-Bomb, near now known as Atomic Bomb Dome in Hiroshima, western Japan. On Aug. 6, 1945, a U.S. plane dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima, the first nuclear weapon has been used in war. Japan surrendered on Aug. 15, ending World War II. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)

: In this July 6, 2015 photo, a crossroad is seen from an elevator of a department store in Hiroshima, western Japan. On Aug. 6, 1945, a U.S. plane dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima, the first nuclear weapon has been used in war. Japan surrendered on Aug. 15, ending World War II. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)

: In this Aug. 8, 1945 file photo, soldiers and civilians walk through the grim remains of Hiroshima, two days after the atomic bomb explosion of Aug. 6,1945. The building on left with columned facade was the Hiroshima Bank. To its right, with arched front entrance, was the Sumitomo Bank. On Aug. 6, 1945, a U.S. plane dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima, the first nuclear weapon has been used in war. Japan surrendered on Aug. 15, ending World War II. (AP Photo)

: FILE – In this Aug. 8, 1945 file photo, the shell of a building stands amid acres of rubble in this view of the Japanese city of Hiroshima. On Aug. 6, 1945, a U.S. plane dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima, the first nuclear weapon has been used in war. Japan surrendered on Aug. 15, ending World War II. (AP Photo/Mitsugi Kishida, File)

: FILE – In this Sept. 8, 1945 file photo, two people walk on a cleared path through the destruction resulting from the Aug. 6 detonation of the first atomic bomb in Hiroshima, western Japan. On Aug. 6, 1945, a U.S. plane dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima, the first nuclear weapon has been used in war. Japan surrendered on Aug. 15, ending World War II. (AP Photo/U.S. Air Force, File)

: In this July 5, 2015 photo, a man checks with a public street map at a crossroad near now known as Atomic Bomb Dome in Hiroshima, western Japan. On Aug. 6, 1945, a U.S. plane dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima, the first nuclear weapon has been used in war. Japan surrendered on Aug. 15, ending World War II. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)

: FILE – In this Sept. 8, 1945 file photo, an allied correspondent stands in the rubble in front of the shell of a building that once was a exhibition center and government office in Hiroshima, Japan, a month after the first atomic bomb ever used in warfare was dropped by the U.S. on Aug. 6, 1945. (AP Photo/Stanley Troutman, File)

: In this July 1, 2015 photo, a visitor photographs now known as Atomic Bomb Dome in Hiroshima, western Japan. On Aug. 6, 1945, a U.S. plane dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima, the first nuclear weapon has been used in war. Japan surrendered on Aug. 15, ending World War II. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)

“I grew up in Yokohama, and had never been to this western Japanese city before, though I had seen plenty of images on television.

My first impression was of a modern city on a steamy summer day. I imagined the same intense heat, even in the morning, had greeted people headed to work on the morning of Aug. 6, 1945. At 8:15 a.m., still 2,000 feet above the ground, the falling bomb detonated, forever changing their lives.

Some 90 percent of the city was destroyed, which is why it looks so new today. An estimated 140,000 people died in a city of 350,000, including those who succumbed to severe radiation exposure through the end of 1945.

The 1959 movie “Hiroshima Mon Amour” left a strong impression on me. The city as portrayed in the movie looked like any other, just 14 years after the devastation. I wondered how an outsider — a visiting French actress in 1959, or me today — could fully understand what had happened.

When I was traveling abroad 30 years ago, a man asked me a question: “Are there any trees, does grass grow in Hiroshima?”

I was shocked; I knew that trees and flowers grew the same as anywhere in the world.

The city I found was very much rebuilt and alive, with a population today of 1.2 million. The streetcars are packed again. The stark wasteland seen in the black-and-white photos taken soon after the bombing is but a memory.

The remains of one building stand on a river bank in the same place as 70 years ago. The Atomic Bomb Dome, now a U.N. World Heritage Site, has become the iconic image of Hiroshima.

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.

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

Now and then: Hiroshima after the atomic bomb and today

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