Panorama Of What Hiroshima Looked Like After The Atomic Bomb

It’s been 66 long years since the US levelled Hiroshima and Nagasaki with atomic bombs. The bombs, which killed over 200,000 people, left both cities in ruins. This is what the aftermath looked like in 360 degrees.

I know the bomb helped end a vicious world war but seeing the destruction of the cities is heart-breaking. You see outlines of grid that surround emptiness, poles that connect nothing, trees burnt to crisp, half torn buildings standing as monuments, people confused on how to pick up their lives, it’s just terrible. It’s been 66 years but it’s still deeply unsettling to see a city reduced to rubble, you know?

360cities.net found five different 360-degree panoramas of the aftermath, each showing a different angle. The panoramas were taken a few months after the bomb dropped by three American photographers and one Japanese photographer. The Japanese photographer, Shigeo Hayashi, probably summed it up best, saying, “I stood at the hypocenter of the Hiroshima atomic bombing and made a slow revolution. In that instant I had a difficulty grasping that this city had been felled by a single explosion. Nothing in my experience had prepared me to conceive of that magnitude of destructive force.” Here’s what he saw:

The other panoramas are just as crushing. I mean, there’s just nothing left. Check them all out at 360cities.net. Let’s hope this never happens again. [360cities via BoingBoing]