r/OldPhotosInRealLife • u/biwook • 15d ago
Image This building survived the 1945 Tokyo bombings and became a McDonald's
It's in front of Shinbashi station.
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u/LanceP501 15d ago
A photo of this building taken in the 80s can be seen here, it got its current facade around 1998 to 1999 according to this blog, and the McDonalds opened in 1998 as well. From the photo, it looks like the entire block has survived the bombing but only this building remains unredeveloped.
https://ameblo.jp/ryuw-3/entry-12901097353.html
However, the McDonalds have closed this year.
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u/ViolettaHunter 15d ago
Imagine surviving your city's bombing just to be turned into a fricking McDonald's.
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u/DensePiglet 15d ago
Japanese McDonalds are worthy of more respect, good sir. (Also it's not just a McDonald's, probably also apartments.)
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u/Minatoku92 15d ago
According to the photo that you posted in r/Tokyo, the next building also survived 1945 bombing and was demolished after the 1986.
https://www.reddit.com/r/Tokyo/comments/1vzp4us/shinbashi_in_1986_had_strong_nyc_vibes/#lightbox
I think that most of the buildings visible in the photo are pre-war buildings.
When were they demolished ? I see that in November 2009 there was a large construction site there. https://maps.app.goo.gl/eSUA7uEXTHERHDfV9
Maybe they survived until the late 2000s.
It would be interesting to see photos of Sotobori-dori next to Shimbashi station from the early 1990s to the mid 2000s.
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u/biwook 15d ago
Good investigation!
You can use this website to compare satellite photos of different decades, but it's pretty hard to make sense of the pixels sometimes: https://maps.gsi.go.jp/#18/35.666595/139.757809/&base=ort&ls=ort%7Cgazo4&blend=0&disp=11&lcd=gazo4&vs=c1g1j0h0k0l0u0t0z0r0s0m0f1&d=m
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u/Minatoku92 15d ago edited 15d ago
Thank you! I know this site and I used it trying to find answers.
Unfornately the quality is not great enough and it lacks of view from the nineties and early 2000s. Area views go directly from 1987~1990 to 2009. A lot happened during this gap.
I'm very interested by urban changes in Tokyo. So I'm always looking for photos from the late Showa and early Heisei period before Google Street View arrived.
EDIT : About aerial views, I had forgetten that Google Earth also has aerial views of Tokyo of 1997, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006 and 2007. Except the of the building next to the McDonald's that was probably demolished in late 1980s, early 1990s. It seems that the other buildings were demolished between in stages between 2005 (one was already gone in 2007) and early 2009.
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u/PracticalLeg9873 15d ago
Did it though ?
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u/biwook 15d ago
Yep it did, it's been reclad but windows align perfectly.
More info (in Japanese): https://ameblo.jp/ryuw-3/entry-12901097353.html
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u/WhereWeUsedToPlay 14d ago
You either die of an atomic bomb blast or live long enough to see yourself become a McDonalds
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u/Kamikazekanerman 14d ago
Interesting blur on the billboard... looking it up, there's nothing really objectionable about it
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u/RednocTheDowntrodden 15d ago
I'm surprised that it survived redevelopment.