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תושבי הירושימה ביפן ציינו (יום ו', 5.8.05) את הרגע ההיסטורי לפני 60 שנה, כשהפצצה האטומית הראשונה בעולם הופלה על העיר ו'התקופה הגרעינית' באה לעולם.

הפצצה על הירושימה, והפצצה השניה שהוטלה 3 ימים לאחר מכן על נגסאקי, שמו סוף למלחמת העולם השנייה. אך הפצצות גרמו למותם של של יותר מ-200,000 בני אדם והשאירו אחריהן ניצולים פצועים ומצולקים.

התיירים המדיכים בפעם הראושהנ לירושימה לעיתים קרובות מורשמים מהעובד כי ישנן ראיות כה מועטות לההרס שאירע לפני 60 שנה. מרכז העיר נראה כמו כל עיר גדולה יפנית מודרנית - חנויות כל בו הומות אדם, בנייני משרדים גבוהים ובתי מלון.

Hiroshima has the added quirk of still having trams plying its main avenues. Quirky too are the tour guides, which give visitors a few important local phrases, like the local way of saying, "it's hot, isn't it?" and, "first, a beer please".

It's only after walking around for a few days you start to notice the plaques nestled outside some of the buildings, discreetly outlining some of the city's history. There's one just around the corner from where we're staying.

The plaques often have an etching of how the building looked in the aftermath of August the 6th, sixty years ago. And the plaques tell the story of what happened. Most of the buildings where these plaques are on display give no outward sign of having any connection to the atomic blast.

There is of course one building that testifies to the bomb's impact, and that's the one known now as the a-bomb dome. Before 1945 it was the city's industrial promotion hall.

It was almost directly below the hypocentre, when the bomb exploded at 8:15 that morning. The dome survived, despite a post-war push by some city residents to have it demolished. It was kept and incorporated into the city's peace memorial park.

Its' in the park this week that you're able to see the survivors of Hiroshima passing on their stories to the next generation. In the shade, with noisy cicadas as background, small groups of schoolchildren sit and listen as representatives explain where they were, and what they did, on august the 6th.

But this week, talking to survivors and their children, you get the feeling they worry that Hiroshima's story isn't having the impact it once had. They say fewer Japanese schoolchildren come to visit, and they watch the machinations of Japan's political leaders. Some are talking about changing the country's pacifist constitution, some even raise the idea of Japan getting the bomb for itself.

For Hiroshima's residents, many are happy to have the world's attention once again, as they mark 60 years since their city changed forever, but they also don't want their city to be defined only by its past.

ELEANOR HALL: And that's the ABC's North Asia Correspondent Shane McLeod in Hiroshima.
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