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During the Meji period, Hiroshima was one of the most important urban centers. The city was located in the coastal region of the Seto Inland Sea on the delta of the Ota River. Hiroshima has almost a flatland and is few meters above sea level. Mori Motonari had founded Hiroshima as his capital but then he lost the battle to Tokugawa Leyasu. During the Edo Period, Hiroshima was the capital of the Hiroshima han but after the abolition of the han, it became the capital of the Hiroshima Prefecture. The event that made Hiroshima popular in history was the attack of atomic bomb on August 6, 1945. The nuclear weapon was named Little Boy that was dropped by America on Hiroshima and took the lives of almost 80,000 people. More than 60,000 people died after a month of the bombing due to the poisonous radiation of the atom bomb. Hiroshima was rebuilt in a new way with modern buildings constructed in almost all parts of the city. The Japanese Parliament in 1949 declared Hiroshima as the City of Peace. In 1994 Hiroshima hosted the Asian Games. The Hiroshima Peace Institute was established in the year 1998 and is popular for the streetcar system that it did not abandon unlike the other Japanese cities.
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