Introduction

This blog post will introduce a 360 VR virtual tour of the A-bomb dome in the Hiroshima peace park that we photographed and produced. This virtual tour inside the normally off-limit inside grounds of the A-bomb dome was commissioned by the Hiroshima office of the United Nations training body, UNITAR, as part of their training programme on nuclear disarmament.

click on image to start the 360 tour inside the a-bomb dome

Background to making this VR virtual tour of the A-bomb dome

UNITAR is a United Nations training institution headquartered in Geneva with offices around the world, including in Hiroshima City. Their Nuclear Disarmament and Non-Proliferation course for government officals, the military and NGOs gives participants a practical hands on understandin of the latest nuclear-arms control debate and is held in Hiroshima. As part of the course, participants get a tour of the park and get to explore it from the perspective or a nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation perspective.

With the pandemic participants were not able to travel to Hiroshima so UNITAR decided to bring the Hiroshima Peace Park to the participants, online as a virtual 360 tour. The full 360 tour of the Hiroshima Peace Park is available here. The tour is an interactive experience with pictures, video and text to give some context and depth to the locations in the Peace Park, including a quiz at the end with the answers hidden throughout the tour.

As part of this virtual tour of the whole park, focusing in particular on locations relevant to the Nuclear Disarmament training course, we photographed inside the normally closed area of the A-bomb dome grounds. This virtual tour is of these normally off limits interior shots of the A-bomb dome and fenced off areas.

How did we film this 360 tour of the A-bomb dome?

The client, UNITAR, got permission for us to film inside the A-bomb area from Hiroshima City. Two of us were allowed in for 2 hours to photograph, with UNITAR staff members stationed around the entrances. Due to the sensitive nature of the location, we were not allowed to take photos of us at work or post to social media.

Photographing the 360 degree pictures for the virtual tour was done on the Insta360 Pro2, a 6-lens camera. It can be quite temperamental so we took 2 shots per location, just to be sure. Of course, with a 360 degree field of view, we had to hide behind pillars during the exposure, hurrying, respectfully, to hide ourselves.

Thoughts on filming inside the normally restricted grounds of the A-bomb dome

Although we had limited time and a job to do, what really made an impression on me was how hard it was to walk over the rubble in and around the building. I can’t imagine the horrors of the bombing and the aftermath, but walking around the sharp jumble of concrete and brick rubble felt like some kind of small physical representation of what it was like. Even after all these years, having to clamber over the utter destruction felt like some small connection of understanding to what it was like.

In what was almost unbelievable timing though, as we set up to film inside the dome area a construction truck pulled up on the footpath outside, unloaded a small digger, and then a crew set to work mending the footpath, right in the line of our shot from the inside. The kind of work that would get done once every 10 years, at most, gets done on the very morning of our shoot. We somehow managed to block the view of the digger with the window pillars. The mundane every day of the present, existing with the heaviness of the past.

UNITAR staff responding to media questions about the 360 VR tour shoot inside the A-bomb dome

Media coverage of the shoot

A number of local tv news stations were on hand to report the project and a UNTAR staff was interviewed, as the photo below shows. While we were inside the building area we were also filmed by the tv crew - a bit nerve racking being filmed setting up a tripod and photographing inside a world heritage site, especially one so important to Hiroshima and the world. A report from a local Hiroshima station RCC TV is below

Local TV media coverage of Hiroshima Peace Park A-bomb dome 360 VR tour

Concluding thoughts on usefulness of 360 virtual tours

Inside the Hiroshima Peace Park A-bomb dome was almost a perfect use-case example for a virtual tour.

The A-bomb dome':

is a place with high interest from many people, throughout the world
has very restricted access
physical space has semi-enclosed areas, ensuring that any angle, including the ground area, is of interest to the viewer

Hiroshima Peace Park and A-bomb dome 360 VR virtual tour