砲撃

1. Origins, structure, and basic meaning

• Structure: The spelling is 砲撃, read ほうげき, and it combines 砲, meaning cannon or artillery, with 撃, meaning strike or attack.
• Basic usage: 砲撃 means shelling or bombardment, an attack carried out by firing artillery at a target.

2. Common pitfalls and similar expressions

• An attack causing an event and damage left afterward
  • Both examples use the form 砲撃. In the novel, dawn shelling breaks a town's silence; in the museum video, past bombardment is the cause of documented damage.
• Silence broken at dawn and damage documented by a museum
  • 小説では夜明けの砲撃で町の静けさが破られる。 — In the novel, shelling at dawn breaks the town's silence.
  • 博物館の映像は昔の砲撃による被害を伝えている。 — A museum video documents damage from past bombardments.