VOA标准英语2009年-Japanese Students Create 3D Version of Des

By Akiko Fujita
Nagasaki, Japan
08 October 2009

 
Brick-colored Urakami Cathedral (center), with twin towers, stands 08 Aug 2005 in area of hypocenter of atomic bombing in Nagasaki
Students at Japan's University of Nagasaki are attempting to recreate a neighborhood an atomic bomb destroyed. Seventy thousand people died when the United States dropped an atomic bomb on Nagasaki to end World War II. Pictures and memories of the Urakami neighborhood at the city's center vanished with them. But a 3D project is bringing the neighborhood back to life.

University of Nagasaki professor Byondok Jun's vision to recreate the city's Urakami neighborhood began with one image: an aerial photo of Nagasaki, taken by a U.S. warplane.

The image was snapped two days before the U.S. dropped an atomic bomb on the city near the end of World War II. But it was only released a few years ago. The black and white image captured a hospital, the university and surrounding homes; all buildings that were destroyed on August 10, 1945.

Jun says the image brought back the trees, the laughter, the city that existed before the attack. It gave him the first glimpse into life in Urakami and inspired him to recreate a three-dimensional image of the neighborhood.

Jun only planned to complete the aerial image - but students Yurika Uchijima and Kanouko Maeda asked to take the project a step further. They wanted to recreate street corners and store fronts - making the images more personal - for their graduate thesis.

Maeda says they had no idea where to start. They studied the professor's 3D aerial image first. Then they set out in search of old pictures of the Urakami neighborhood.

There was one problem: most photos of the community were destroyed in the attack. With few images to draw from, Maeda and Uchijima went in search of atomic bomb survivors² and relied on their descriptions of Urakami.

Eighty-year-old Yoshitoshi Fukahori heard about the project and agreed to help out.

Fukahori says some question why I did this for free. But I felt an obligation to share my story as an atomic bomb survivor¹.

Fukahori was a teenager in 1945. He describes the Urakami neighborhood as one big family that opened its doors to everybody. He recalls the community gathering³ at the local barbershop to celebrate the smallest accomplishments⁴ and share in each other's joy.

In the early 1940s, Japan had conquered much of Asia and was at war with China, Britain and the United States. To end the war in August 1945, the United States dropped the first atomic weapons ever used on the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. A few days later, Japan surrendered.

Fukahori was not home the day of the bombing but his sister was.

He says he found her dead a few days later. She was grasping the beam of their home. His uncle was crushed under the building and his aunt died as well.

Fukahori has spent the past 30 years collecting pictures of his old neighborhood for Nagasaki's Foundation for Peace.

Now those pictures are the foundation of a project to bring his memories back to life.

Student Yurika Uchijima says Fukahori pointed⁵ them to the playgrounds and a well where neighborhood children gathered to relax. She says he put a personal story behind every one of the buildings.

The students have used those stories and the few pictures available to recreate 3D images of more than a tenth of Urakami's building. They hope to complete the project by December. Uchijima and Maeda do not have any idea how their images will be used after that but professor Jun sees it as a tool for peace, one that teaches another generation about the power of a nuclear weapon.

1 survivor   

n.生存者，残存者，幸存者

参考例句：

• The sole survivor of the crash was an infant.这次撞车的惟一幸存者是一个婴儿。
• There was only one survivor of the plane crash.这次飞机失事中只有一名幸存者。

2 survivors   

幸存者，残存者，生还者( survivor的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The survivors were adrift in a lifeboat for six days. 幸存者在救生艇上漂流了六天。
• survivors clinging to a raft 紧紧抓住救生筏的幸存者

3 gathering   

n.集会，聚会，聚集

参考例句：

• He called on Mr. White to speak at the gathering.他请怀特先生在集会上讲话。
• He is on the wing gathering material for his novels.他正忙于为他的小说收集资料。

4 accomplishments   

n.造诣；完成( accomplishment的名词复数 )；技能；成绩；成就

参考例句：

• It was one of the President's greatest accomplishments. 那是总统最伟大的成就之一。
• Among her accomplishments were sewing,cooking,playing the piano and dancing. 她的才能包括缝纫、烹调、弹钢琴和跳舞。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》

5 pointed   

adj.尖的，直截了当的

参考例句：

• He gave me a very sharp pointed pencil.他给我一支削得非常尖的铅笔。
• She wished to show Mrs.John Dashwood by this pointed invitation to her brother.她想通过对达茨伍德夫人提出直截了当的邀请向她的哥哥表示出来。