Beyond the Textbook: 3D Tech Turns History into a Livable, Explorable World

• 7 October 2025
• International News
• 881 Views

A revolution in historical preservation is unfolding at the University of Tokyo, where Professor Hidenori Watanabe is using advanced 3D geospatial technology to transform history from a static textbook narrative into a live, explorable world.

For two decades, Prof. Watanave has been creating interactive, map-based archives that allow users to virtually step into pivotal historical moments, including the devastating aftermath of the 1945 atomic bombings.

The most remarkable work of Prof. Watanabe is the Hiroshima and Nagasaki archives, which combine survivor testimony, archival photos, and 3D city reconstructions. Using the open-source platform called Cesium (recently acquired by Bentley Systems), he has created a system where users can navigate the city street by street, toggling between past and present. They can click on a precise location and hear the voice of a survivor, connecting abstract historical events to real places and personal memories.

His projects are powered by Cesium’s 3D Tiles format, which allows massive datasets of entire cities to be streamed quickly to any standard web browser, making the archives accessible globally and in real-time.

“Memory fades,” Watanave says. “But if we connect the past to the present through technology, people can truly experience history.”

The youngest survivors are now in their late 70s, making the digital preservation of their voices a race against time, he added.

Watanave believes that to engage younger generations, history must be presented in the media they use. “Young people today don’t watch long films or read long texts,” he notes. “But they play Minecraft, they explore in VR. If we want them to carry these memories forward, we have to use the media of their time.”

Watanave’s methodology extends far beyond World War II. During the Russian invasion of Ukraine, his team mapped bombed schools and destroyed housing blocks. They have also applied the technology to natural disasters like earthquakes in Turkey and floods in Japan, as well as the ongoing conflict in Gaza.

A recent project, to be featured at the United Nations Pavilion at Expo 2025 in Osaka, is a digital reconstruction of a Japanese Navy Type Zero Reconnaissance Seaplane found submerged on the seafloor. Viewers can descend beneath the waves in a browser, gliding around the corroding fuselage—a globally accessible exhibit without walls.

Looking ahead, Watanave plans to connect all these disparate archives into a Global Memory Map on a single Cesium globe, allowing visitors to see how humanity responds to catastrophe across different times and places.

“We can democratize memory,” he asserts. “Anyone, anywhere, should be able to contribute and to learn.”

• Digital Twin
• iTwin
• Cesium
• Bentley Systems