As soon as they came to themselves after the bombing, people gathered in front of City Hall, still with no idea what had happened. All buildings in the vicinity of the City Hall had been levelled and emptied earlier for a firelane, so the area was thought to be a safe refuge. However, the great fire spread rapidly and before anything could be done, the City Hall, along with the rest of the city, was engulfed in flames.
Place: Kokutaiji-machi,
Naka-ku, Hiroshima Distance from hypocenter: about 1 kilometer south Floor space: about 8,900 m2 Structure: Ferro-concrete, 4 floors above ground, 1 basement Completed: March 1928 Disassembled: November 1985 Preservation: In July 1986 one room in the basement, preserved
as it was in 1945, became the Old City Hall Exhibition Room.
