Genbaku Dome
- what the name has left us -
[First broadcast] Tuesday, August 6, 2019 9:50-10:45 a.m.
[Re-run] Wednesday, August 7, 2019 4:00-4:55 a.m.
When did they start calling it the Genbaku Dome?
Regarding the name of this ruin that tells the disaster of HIROSHIMA, the City of Hiroshima says that citizens naturally started calling it Genbaku (A-Bomb) Dome and that it didn’t come from any particular person or time. In other words, nobody knows where the name came from. We have been calling this world-renowned ruin by its nickname.
Many of the facilities in the Peace Memorial Park where the A-Bomb Dome stands have “Peace” in their name – Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum, Memorial Monument for Hiroshima City of Peace, Flame of Peace, and Pond of Peace, among others. The A-Bomb Dome too, used to be called the Peace Memorial Dome at one time.
After World War II, the GHQ was very thorough with their propaganda. Speech control and information manipulation made the word genbaku (atomic bomb) taboo. The purpose of this was to contain the reality of the effects of using an inhumane weapon. This transformed Hiroshima into a “City of Peace”.
However, Genbaku remained as part of the name for the A-Bomb Dome. In order to trace the history of how genbaku and dome came to be used in the nickname, we collected clues from old memoires and journals. We also sent out a questionnaire to 500 hibakusha and conducted interviews.
What emerged is a new fact that had never been revealed before. What feelings of the atomic bombed city HIROSHIMA does the name Genbaku Dome carry?
Director Norio Maeda
The Atomic Bomb Dome is a World Heritage Site located in Hiroshima City. Many of the facilities in Peace Park, where the Atomic Bomb Dome is located, have names that include the word “peace”, such as the “Peace Flame” and the “Peace Bell”. Of these, the Atomic Bomb Dome is the only one with the word “atomic bomb” in its name. Why is that? When I looked into it, I found that it was not clear when or by whom the Atomic Bomb Dome was named. What happened on that day 74 years ago? The Atomic Bomb Dome continues to stand to convey the truth. There is something that must have been left behind in its name. I began my research believing this to be true.
Profile of Norio Maeda
Maeda joined TSS Production, Inc. (TSS-TV) in 2006. In 2007, his work “The Story of Shipbuilding in Innoshima - People who Live with Rollforming” won the Japan Commercial Broadcasters Association Excellence Award for educational television programming and Takayanagi Memorial Encouragement Award for science broadcast. In 2012, his work “We become Adults through Play - What Play Means to Children” won the Galaxy Month of July Award for television and the Japan Commercial Broadcasters Association Chugoku/Shikoku Region Jurors Excellence Award. In 2014, his work "The Man Who Preserved the Legacy of Hiroshima – The Story Behind the Peace Memorial Museum” won the Japan Commercial Broadcasters Association Excellence Award for educational television programming, the Japan Hoso Bunka Foundation Chugoku-Shikoku Region Excellence Prize, and the Galaxy First Fiscal Half Encouragement Award, to name a few of his many awards.
