80 Years On: A-Bombed Streetcars Continue to Serve Hiroshima

   Hiroshima, Aug. 5 (Jiji Press)--As Wednesday marks the 80th anniversary of the 1945 atomic bombing of Hiroshima, streetcars exposed to the attack continue to provide transportation and opportunities for peace education in the western Japan city.
   The affected streetcars have become a symbol of the city's reconstruction, as they resumed operations soon after the blast.
   According to the streetcar operator, Hiroshima Electric Railway Co., the atomic bomb took the lives of 185 employees, believed to include 30 students and staff of a girls vocational school established by the company to address labor shortages during the war.
   The bombing also damaged 108 of the company's 123 streetcars, some of which were destroyed. But streetcar service resumed in some sections just three days after the bombing, thanks to intense restoration efforts.
   According to the publication about the streetcar service's 100-year history, a student from the girls school served as conductor on a restored streetcar. She recounted that she was told by a company official not to collect fares from passengers who did not have money.

(2025/08/05-15:44)