During workshops organized by a University of Tokyo graduate student, participants recreate in a computer game the cityscapes of Hiroshima and Nagasaki before the August 1945 U.S. atomic bombings ¡ª aiming to help people think about what the two cities lost in the nuclear attacks that occurred in the closing days of World War II.

Misaki Katayama, 27, who researches peace education, has been holding the two-day workshops in Hiroshima and Nagasaki since 2023.

At the workshops, fourth- to sixth-grade elementary school students reproduce the cityscapes of Hiroshima and Nagasaki before the bombings in Minecraft, a game that allows players to build structures and communities in a virtual world, by using maps, photographs and video footage from that time.

At a workshop held in Hiroshima on Aug. 4 and 5, 2023, students built a simulation of the area where Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park now stands, including a temple and a kindergarten that once existed there. The park was built in 1955 near the epicenter of the bombing.

Katayama came up with the idea for the workshops six years ago when a hibakusha atomic bomb survivor told her that an elementary school student had said, ¡°It was lucky that the atomic bomb was dropped on a park,¡± rather than a densely populated area.

The student, on a visit to the park for a peace education program, may not have known that the site was once one of Hiroshima¡¯s busiest districts before the atomic bombing.

¡°As many years have passed, it is now difficult for people to imagine what the city looked like before the bombing,¡± Katayama said.

On the first day of the workshop, participants collect information about the city before the bombing, draw up a plan and remake the cityscape in the game. Through the activity, participants can realize that the city took a very long time to build but was destroyed in an instant, Katayama says.

On the second day, participants view photos of hibakusha immediately after the bombing and listen to the stories of survivors, to understand the reality of both before and after the attack and learn how the bomb changed everything.

Meanwhile, the game-based peace education program sometimes faces the challenge of preventing participants from becoming so focused on duplicating destroyed buildings that they forget the true purpose of the activity.

Katayama sets aside time to offer a moment of silence for the atomic bomb victims before the workshops. ¡°It would be disrespectful to hibakusha if the workshop lacks proper preparations and management,¡± she said.

¡°Digital technology can broaden our imagination of what the cities were like before the atomic bombings and help us reflect on the lives of citizens who were there,¡± Katayama said. ¡°I hope the workshops will encourage people to think about the atomic bombings.¡±