Every year at 8:15 am on August 6th, a minute of silent prayer attended by thousands of people in the Hiroshima National Peace Memorial, marks the moment when, in 1945, an atomic bomb was dropped on the city. An estimated 80,000 people lost their lives in an instant; 60,000 others perished from their injuries before the year was out.

A museum in the Peace Memorial complex, close to the epicentre of the explosion, displays the few photographs taken in its aftermath, along with testimonies from survivors. Despite the fact that an entirely new, vibrant city has since been built over the radioactive ashes, visiting the site tends to evoke strong emotions. Only by coming to Hiroshima, however, is it possible to fully comprehend the scale of the tragedy – and the astonishing resilience of those who survived it.