The four buildings that make up the former Imperial Japanese Army Clothing Depot are seen in an L-shape below. The leftmost three are owned by the Hiroshima Prefectural Government. Photograph taken from a Mainichi Shimbun helicopter above Minami Ward, Hiroshima, on July 19, 2016. (Mainichi/Tadashi Kako)

A residents' group member asks a passerby to sign the petition opposing the prefectural government's plans to tear down the former Imperial Japanese Army Clothing Depot in Hiroshima's Chuo Ward, on Jan. 8, 2020. (Mainichi/Misa Koyama)

HIROSHIMA -- A citizens' group in this western Japan city has started a campaign from Jan. 8 to preserve four buildings that make up the former Imperial Japanese Army Clothing Depot, some of the largest existing structures that still stood after the 1945 atomic bombing of Hiroshima by the U.S. military.

The group has started asking for shows of support from passersby on the streets, and intends to present its opposition to the prefectural government's proposal to tear down the buildings once it receives 1,000 signatures against the plans.

Formerly production centers for clothing and other items for the Japanese military, the buildings have continued to deteriorate. Following concerns that a powerful earthquake measuring 6 or higher on Japan's seismic intensity scale could bring the structures down, the prefectural government has proposed a plan to dismantle two of the three buildings it owns, and preserve just the exterior of the third one.

To urge the local government to reconsider its plans, eight people including Tatsuro Naito, 78, chairperson of the association campaigning for the preservation of the Army Clothing Depot, stood outside symbolic locations in the city's Chuo Ward such as the Atomic Bomb Dome and Motoyasu bridge to canvas for signatures.

Kaori Shima, 32, who was visiting from the city of Iida in the central Japan prefecture of Nagano, said it was the first time she had heard of the clothing depot. She signed the petition, saying, "It's proof of the atomic bombings that can be used to pass on what happened, so I think it should be preserved."

Naito himself was affected by the atomic bomb when it was dropped on the city on Aug. 6. 1945. Touching on the buildings' history as places where essentials such as shoes and clothes were made for the Japanese military, he said, "It's also a negative reminder of the responsibility Japan has as an aggressor during the war. They should be left in a way that the spaces could be utilized, for example as a museum."

While the group's efforts to collect signatures on the streets will continue, they are also accepting postal submissions. For any queries, the association can be contacted on: 082-928-0068 (Japanese language only).

(Japanese original by Misa Koyama, Hiroshima Bureau)