Japanese Students Use Virtual Reality to Recreate Hiroshima Bombing

We all have learned about the Hiroshima atomic blast event in our history books. It was an event that frightened the whole world. Even today, the reminiscence of the event follows.  The attack resulted in the loss of 140,000 lives and even though we know about the event, very little is known about the scale of the event.

A group of Japanese students has developed a VR experience that shows you what happened on August 6, 1945. It gives us insight into how devastating a nuclear blast can be and why it is important to prevent something like that from happening again.

The VR creation puts the user near the bay of Hiroshima’s Motoyasu River, where you can admire the picturesque landscape. The place is 60 miles away from Hiroshima, and at the start of the presentation, all seems very normal. The students have done a great deal in recreating Hiroshima as they didn’t just go any type of building. They recreated the building designs of 1945 using old photographs and other materials that gave them the tiny details that they were after.

“When I was creating the buildings before the atomic bomb fell and after, I saw many photos of buildings that were gone. I really felt how scary atomic bombs can be. Those who knew the city very well tell us it’s done very well. They say it’s very nostalgic,” said Yuhi Nakagawa, a developer from the group.

It’s like a sunny day like in any VR simulation until you see a streak out light followed by rising clouds. Come a few seconds you can see a black cloud enveloping the skies and next thing you know it; the buildings are burning like firewood. The two years of development has resulted in a 5-minute simulation. The students are hard at work in completing the project so that they can screen it to the survivors.

The students aim to use their VR creation to spread the word on how terrifying such an event could be in the future and why it is important that we stay away from weapons of mass destruction.