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| Above, a Nagasaki streetcar in 2007. Photo by Armand Vaquer. |
When I visited Hiroshima in 2004 with G-TOUR, we mainly confined our visit to the Atomic Bomb Museum and the Atomic Bomb Dome.
At the time, I did not see any streetcars there. A few years later, I did see streetcars in Nakasaki when I visited it. They reminded me of old Los Angeles when streetcars were operating. They were removed in 1963 in favor of buses.
There is one streetcar in Hiroshima that did survive, although damaged, the atomic bomb. It is now being used for tours.
According to The Japan Times:
HIROSHIMA – A tour offering views of Hiroshima’s reconstruction following the U.S. atomic bombing 81 years ago aboard a streetcar that survived the blast started Sunday.
The tour uses Hiroshima Electric Railway’s streetcar No. 653, which was damaged in the blast on Aug. 6, 1945, in the closing days of World War II.
The streetcar resumed operations four months later after undergoing emergency repairs, and became a symbol of the city’s reconstruction. It is still operated for special events, with its livery restored to that at the time of the bombing.
The latest tour will run a total of 19 times on weekends and holidays through Oct. 31, on a loop line that opened in March.
To read more, go here.
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