I first learned that from early October through December 1945 — about three months right after the war ended — “Outline Maps of War Damage in Major Cities Nationwide” were drawn city by city. A five-minute stroll from Palaceside Building, the National Archives of Japan (3-2 Kitanomaru Park, Chiyoda) is holding a special exhibition, showing maps for about 130 cities from Hokkaido to Kagoshima in three periods.
I had seen the Nagasaki and Hiroshima maps more than once, but I had not known that the First Demobilization Ministry’s documents section compiled maps for so many cities. The pamphlet says returning servicemen’s first question on home soil was how their hometowns had been damaged, so the ministry hurried to finish the set.
Scale, paper, sheet size, and the precision of what was written vary from place to place. You can imagine the hardship of investigators sent to major cities, short of supplies and methods, finishing the work in only three months.
Period I (Hakodate and Kushiro through Shizuoka, Shimizu, and Hamamatsu) ended on August 23. Period II, from Otsu, Hikone, and Gifu through Himeji, Itami, and Nishinomiya, began on the 26th (through September 6). Period III (September 9–20) runs from Yonago, Okayama, and Hiroshima through Kagoshima, Kanoya, and Sendai (Satsumasendai). Including Period I, you can search and view them all on the National Archives Digital Archive (http://www.digital.archives.go.jp/).
The day I visited last week was still Period I. A woman around seventy stared into “War Damage Outline Map: Tokyo” = photo above and traced one point with a finger on the glass. A place left in a corner of memory, perhaps.
Aerial photos of ruined Tokyo were also
on display = photo below. Shot on August 25, 1945, the caption said: northeast of Kyobashi; the second building from the bottom on the right is the Ajinomoto head office completed in 1932. The corner clock tower (the lower-left corner of that building in the photo) was a landmark and still stood into the 1980s.
The nearest station is Takebashi (exit 1b). Open Monday–Friday, 9:15 a.m.–5:00 p.m. Closed Saturday, Sunday, and holidays.