HIROSHIMA, Japan (AP) — The crumbling brick and concrete walls of the Atomic Bomb Dome, as it is known today, rise above the Motoyasu River. The bomb so devastated Hiroshima that there are few other reminders of the city that was here seven decades ago.
“I didn’t want to see this place for a long time,” said Kimie Mihara, a fragile but straight-backed 89-year-old. She walked slowly around the fenced-off ruin, now roofless save for the dome’s skeleton.
On the morning of Aug. 6, 1945, this building was her office. She was running late to work. That’s the only reason she’s still alive.