Hiroshima

The Peace Memorial Museum

People were eerily silent as they walked round the various exhibits, learning about the bomb and its horrific effects.  The lead up to the bombing is explained and there are two models of the city, before and after the explosion.  Displays explain the after effects of the bomb, detailing the plight of the survivors and showing us their appalling injuries.  We were really impressed with how the museum seems impartial, presenting the facts and a balanced picture of why the atrocity took place.  It’s kind of surreal walking out of the museum into the Peace Memorial Park, the bustling city just beyond the greenery, images of absolute devastation still fresh in our minds.

The Peace Memorial Park

A-bomb Dome

Here are some pictures of the twisted shell of the Industrial Promotion Hall, built in 1914 and now better known as the A-bomb Dome.  Almost at the hypocentre of the blast, the hall was one of the few structures in the surrounding 3km that remained standing.

Children’s Peace Monument

Here is the Children’s Peace Monument, a statue of a young girl standing atop an elongated dome and holding aloft a giant origami crane – the symbol of health and longevity.  At the monument’s base are thousands of multicoloured cranes, folded by schoolchildren from all over Japan and many other countries, a tradition that started with radiation victim Sasaki Sadako who fell ill with leukaemia in 1955.  The 12-year old started to fold cranes on her sick bed in the hope that if she reached 1000 she’d be cured; she died before reaching her goal, but her classmates continued after her death and went on to build this monument. 

The Memorial Cenotaph

Underneath the arch lies a stone coffin holding the names of all the direct and indirect A-bomb victims and beside it burns the Flame of Peace, which will be put out once the last nuclear weapon on earth has been destroyed.