The preservation of structures damaged in the atomic bomb attack on Hiroshima on Aug. 6, 1945, as relics has become more difficult with the passage of time, with more than 10 percent of them pulled down over the past 17 years.
"It was a shame but I had no other choice," Shinichiro Kirihara, 50, owner of a container materials factory said, recalling his decision last summer to tear down a brick building that was registered with the city office as atomic-bomb remains, on the premises of the plant.
The building, where barrels were made, stood just 2.5 km from the hypocenter of the bombing. The roof was blown off when the bomb was dropped, but the walls continued to stand.