Streetcar No. 653, which survived the atomic bombing 81years ago, enters Hiroshima Station on Sunday.
HIROSHIMA (Jiji Press) -- A tour offering views of reconstruction in Hiroshima, a city in western Japan, following the U.S. atomic bombing 81 years ago aboard a streetcar that survived the blast started on Sunday.
The tour uses Hiroshima Electric Railway Co.'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.
Accompanied by a guide wearing a uniform cap modeled after those worn at the time of the bombing, passengers can use tablet devices to view images of the city before the war and in the immediate aftermath of the bombing.
"I'm astonished that the streetcar is still running after it was restored from its charred, frame-only state," said Satoko Yotsutsuji, 48, who took part in a test run of the tour on Sunday morning with her elementary school-age son.
Participants take a test ride on a streetcar that survived the atomic bombing of Hiroshima before the start of a tour of the city on Sunday.
"I think this project will help children and foreign visitors learn about the reality of the atomic bombing and the city's reconstruction efforts," she said.
"We hope the tour offers an experience of riding a streetcar that has continued to operate since the atomic bombing, serving as a rail linking the past, the present and the future," said Yoshiaki Yokota, an executive at Hiroshima Electric Railway.