It has been nearly 78 years since Hiroshima was reduced to ashes by an atomic bomb. As each year passes, memories fade, with fewer survivors able to pass on their stories to the next generation.
With that in mind, public broadcaster NHK is tapping virtual reality and artificial intelligence to provide vivid, immersive and interactive experiences that will withstand the test of time, with the displays previewed for members of the media during the Group of Seven summit in Hiroshima.
Below is a firsthand account of experiencing the displays.
Inside the Atomic Bomb Dome
I put on a pair of VR goggles and am taken inside the iconic Atomic Bomb Dome, which in the real world is off limits to visitors. Looking toward the sky, I see a red circle directly above the dome indicating where the atomic bomb detonated.
“The blast came down almost directly from above,” the narrator explains. “That’s believed to be the reason the hall retained its shape.”
I then step into a virtual bubble, where a video image shows a narrator explaining details of what happened there — a seamless transition from VR to video for which NHK is applying for a patent.
I look down and see a stairway leading to what appears to be a basement, with broken pieces of brick scattered across the ground. Then I exit the main dome structure and see a steel spiral staircase, twisted out of shape due the heat and the blast.
With special permission to enter the premises, NHK surveyed the structure with a laser from the inside to create a virtual counterpart. It then added about 8,000 photos taken by 10 cameras from 40 locations inside the dome.
The key to making the experience work was to gather an enormous amount of data on the ground, a process that took two days.
“The most important thing was to re-create it precisely,” says Toshiyuki Niida, an NHK videographer who was in charge of the project. “We don’t add anything, and we don’t edit anything. We just show the way it is.”
The idea was born after Niida and his crew first went inside the Atomic Bomb Dome four years ago for a different project.
“It was like time had stopped inside the dome,” he says. “When you see it from outside, you see the modern buildings around. But when you see it from inside, it’s secluded, serene. You can hear the cicadas chirping, and you feel like you’ve traveled back through time.”
This led Niida to wonder what it would be like to create a VR version of the site to allow others to share the experience.
“Normally, TV stations create a program that we think is worthwhile,” Niida says. “But with VR, viewers can choose what they want to see for themselves.”
NHK hopes to have the VR experience on display at the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum for the Aug. 6 anniversary of the bombing.
A survivor's voice
Passing on accounts of the bombing to the younger generation is also in focus, with the average age of survivors now at 84. With this in mind, NHK created an AI system that allows participants to have a question-and-answer session with hibakusha Yoshiko Kajimoto, 92.
“How do people overseas react when they hear your story?” I ask.
Her response begins immediately. When Kajimoto visited France to talk about her experience, one university professor told her that nuclear weapons are needed for deterrence, even if they won’t be used. She felt very disappointed. But the next day, when she spoke before a separate audience, she was met with a standing ovation.
“I thought that it’s better to create momentum among ordinary people than among people higher up,” Kajimoto says.
“What is the message you want to convey the most?” an audience member asks.
“To never be involved in a war ever again,” Kajimoto replies. “And to treasure the life you have been given.”
The broadcaster filmed a long interview with Kajimoto in 2022, asking more than 900 questions over the course of five days — covering her life before the bombing through her struggle to raise her younger brothers on her own after her parents’ death, and even lighter topics including her favorite celebrity.
When a person asks a question, AI is tapped to analyze the content and select the best answer among the recorded material. NHK has created English subtitles for 20 of the questions for the display at the G7 summit media center.
“The feeling that she is answering your questions ... it leaves a totally different impact on the person asking,” said Seiko Ikuta, NHK’s chief producer on the project. “It’s interactive.”
A visitor from Germany who listened to Kajimoto’s accounts at the media center told Ikuta that there are other countries around the world facing the issue of aging survivors from World War II, including survivors of the Holocaust.
Ikuta is acutely aware of the fact that there will be a time in the near future when people won’t be able to hear the accounts of survivors in person.
“We wanted to pass on their experience to the next generation,” Ikuta says. “(Kajimoto) was a normal girl who was living a normal life with her family, just like all of us.
“It could happen to any of us.”
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