Hiroshima Dome's Devastating Past Preserved Through Revealing Drone Survey

Hiroshima City used a drone to scan its landmark "Atomic Dome" at the peace memorial for signs of aging in early February, reporting "no significant deterioration."

The dome is the skeletal remains of a stone and steel building destroyed by an atomic bomb during World War II. The city keeps the iconic structure in a state of arrested decay as a testament to the bombing and gives it a "health check" once every three years.

The drone took 41,000 photographs of the dome during the February scan. They were then analyzed and compared to previous surveys. A technical committee run by the city is responsible for reviewing the dome's condition and recommending measures for its preservation.

Mayor Matsui of Hiroshima returns to his seat after completing the peace declaration at the Peace Memorial Ceremony. Doves are released into the sky at Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park on August 6. (Pool photograph)

Public records of the committee meeting show the detailed photographs allowed analysis of details less than a millimeter in size. Committee Chairman Masayuki Miura, a professor emeritus at Hiroshima University in architectural history, said, "With the drone, we were able to confirm that the deterioration of the dome isn't very severe."

A Permanent Memory of the Atomic Horror

Originally, the building was built in 1915 as the Hiroshima Prefectural Industrial Promotion Hall. The United States detonated an atomic bomb 580 meters above the city on August 6, 1945, almost directly above the building's location.

While most of the city's buildings were flattened, the hall survived due to its sturdy construction. Originally slated to be demolished in the cleanup efforts, it was preserved as a monument to the attack.

The building, also known as the "Genbaku Dome," was registered as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1996. It sits adjacent to the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park and Museum. "Genbaku" means atomic bomb in Japanese.

*Bonfires are lit over the Motoyasu River and by the Atomic Bomb Dome on the afternoon of August 5 in Hiroshima. (© Sankei by Shigeru Amari)*

The city estimates that roughly 140,000 people died in the period from the initial attack through December 1945, when the most severe radiation faded. The site is often the location of international events, as well as Japanese protests against war and the use of nuclear weapons.

The dome was the centerpiece when world leaders assembled in Hiroshima for the 2023 G7 Summit. In October 2024 the Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to Nihon Hidankyo, a Japanese grassroots movement of atomic bomb survivors from Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

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(Read a related article in Japanese.)

Author: The Sankei Shimbun, with additional reporting by Jay Alabaster