Hiroshima tour guide uses homemade models to teach devastation of A-bomb

HIROSHIMA - Volunteer guide Okihiro Terao tells tourists stories about the 1945 bombing of Hiroshima in front of the iconic Atomic Bomb Dome.

The 74-year-old uses two homemade stained-glass models of the building — before and after the bombing — to provide a visual image of the devastation.

His house was only 300 meters away from the then Hiroshima Prefectural Industrial Promotion Hall, the only structure left standing in the area near the epicenter of the U.S. atomic bomb.

But when the bomb was dropped on Aug. 6, 1945, Terao had moved to a suburb with his mother and brothers after being informed of his father’s death in the war.

Terao began his stained-glass model making after he retired. It took him five months to make the Atomic Bomb Dome. He then spent two years completing the pre-bomb model.

Terao has stood in front of the dome since the spring of 2015, the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II.

“I’ve seen many people suffering from the war and nuclear bombing,” Terao said. “We can never repeat that tragedy.”

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