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Hiroshima’s urban development based on ‘axis of peace’

The concept influenced not only the city's reconstruction after World War II, but also its modern urban development. (AFP)
The concept influenced not only the city's reconstruction after World War II, but also its modern urban development. (AFP)
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07 Aug 2024 02:08:20 GMT9
07 Aug 2024 02:08:20 GMT9

HIROSHIMA: In this year’s peace declaration, Hiroshima Mayor Kazumi Matsui mentioned the city’s “axis of peace,” on which key facilities related to the 1945 atomic bombing of the western Japan city are located.

The north-south axis of peace, which includes the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum, the Cenotaph for the A-Bomb Victims and the Atomic Bomb Dome, was proposed by the late internationally renowned Japanese architect Kenzo Tange.

The concept influenced not only the city’s reconstruction after World War II, but also its modern urban development.

A former downtown district that now includes the peace park was instantly burned to the ground by the atomic bombing. It was said that no plants or trees would grow there for 75 years.

But the city’s reconstruction plan, drawn up in 1946, included a plan to build the park and other facilities in the district, and Tange’s design proposal was picked from 145 proposals received in a public solicitation.

Tange proposed that the cenotaph and others be placed on a straight line perpendicular to the east-west boulevard running through the heart of Hiroshima. The facilities built on the line under the Tange plan have voids through which the Atomic Bomb Dome can be seen. Tange wrote in his book that the peace park would hopefully serve as a “factory for making peace.”

According to Chiba University associate professor Saikaku Toyokawa, who is familiar with Tange’s works, while there are examples of axis-oriented urban development in all ages and countries, the Tange plan was different in that it connected negative legacies. Tange apparently “meant that living people facing (the dome) are of value to Hiroshima,” Toyokawa said.

However, reconstruction did not go smoothly as the city’s revenues dropped 80 pct after the atomic bombing reduced its population and devastated its industry.

A special law was then enacted to allow the national government to provide financial support for Hiroshima’s reconstruction. The law was “a catalyst for embodying Tange’s design and wisdom,” said Yoshifumi Ishida, director of the peace museum, which was completed in August 1955.

Today, the axis of peace remains key to the city’s development.

In February, a new soccer stadium with a capacity of about 28,000 people opened about 500 meters north of the Atomic Bomb Dome. On Thursday, a square adjacent to the stadium was fully opened.

In the waterfront area about 4 kilometers south of the dome is a garbage disposal facility featuring a north-south glass corridor. The facility, which was used as a location for the movie “Drive My Car,” was designed by Yoshio Taniguchi, 86, who studied under Tange, and the glass corridor was inspired by the axis of peace, according to Taniguchi’s office.

“Various things are close to the axis drawn by Tange and are linked as if they rhyme,” Toyokawa said. “This is unique to Hiroshima and interesting.”

JIJI Press

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