ABSTRACT
What should be done to the vast remains of destruction? What might be the most appropriate sentiments with which we remember the victims? To what extent should we be reminded of the original moment of carnage and disaster? What should be remembered at the commemorative sites? In what manner, about whom and for what purpose? These are some of the pressing concerns that have plagued Hiroshima’s city planners and citizens, including those who had experienced the bombing as well as those who had not. This essay explores how these questions have been answered, deferred, or sometimes displaced in post-nuclear Hiroshima. In doing so, I will observe some parallels between what Hiroshima as a city of atomic annihilation has gone through in the last 60 years of its rehabilitation and the unfolding discussions around the reconstruction of New York City after the fall of the World Trade Center buildings on 11 September 2001.
