Tourism Hiroshima offers WWII VR city tours

The tour begins at what is now the Hiroshima Park Rest House, which was being used by the fuel-rationing union at the time of the bomb attack. It was just 170 metres (560 feet) from the hypocentre, and all but one of the 37 people in the building at the time were killed. The sole survivor was in the basement when the bomb hit, and the tour is based in part on what he saw when he emerged to scenes that haunted him for the rest of his life. Overall, around 140,000 people perished in the attack and its aftermath. Yamaguchi's company Tabimachi Gate Hiroshima worked with archives from the city's Peace Memorial Museum, a local newspaper and the testimonies of survivors to create segments of VR imagery for five stops around the peace park. Participants walk along a route carrying VR headsets that they put on at each stop, allowing them to experience the area as it was before the bomb, during the attack, and after reconstruction. The tour, which lasts around one hour, with time afterwards for discussion, was launched in 2021.

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