Southern Hiroshima

View looking south at Miyajima Island between Tenma and Ota Rivers, with the Hiroden streetcar line in the direction toward Eba Station. Municipal Fukuromachi Elementary School is visible next to the train tracks. Some 160 students and faculty were killed in the initial attack. Because of the condition of the school, it became a relief hospital. The relief station remained in operation after October 5, 1945 when most relief stations closed. The school reopened in 1946. Many people came here to post written messages about their missing loved ones on the school's chalkboards. A section of one chalkboard, still written with names, was discovered in 1993. Hiroshima's 70 streetcars were all in operation at the time of the attack. Only three were fit for service after the explosion. On August 9, 1945, using the undamaged Hatsukaichi transformer for power, one section of the line between Koi Station and the Tenma-cho stop 4600 feet long (1.4 kilometers) began running, driven by 16-year-old Maso Yamasaki. Many citizens, still digging out their dead and cremating them in maskeshift open pits, saw the streetcar as a sign that the city would survive.