The photographs taken by Motoichi Terao of family members and street scenes in the area of Hiroshima hit by an atomic bomb on Aug. 6, 1945, before he died of illness on the battlefield in 1944, have been carefully kept by his son Okiharu, 81, a resident of the city of Miyoshi in Hiroshima Prefecture.
At the time of the bombing, the Terao family was living in Kajiya-cho, an area to the south of Honkawa National School — now Honkawa Elementary School. The domed roof of the Hiroshima Prefectural Industrial Promotion Hall, which was later turned into the A-bomb Dome, could be seen across the river from the house.
“I am nostalgic for the area of those days,” Okiharu said. The scenes he witnessed in person after the atomic bombing are juxtaposed with such fond memories.