Visiting the city of Hiroshima was my the number one destination when we decided to travel to Japan. Though the dropping of the atomic bombs was only 80 years ago, it boggles my mind how little adults of all ages know about the history of this defining moment in modern times.
However, before we get into all of that we stopped for a few hours on our way to Hiroshima from Osaka at the lovely city of Himeji. This is one of very few actual castles from the times of the Samurai. Most of the others are faithful reproductions. It suffered its share of trauma, but avoided being destroyed by bombings in WW2 and has been meticulously maintained since.If you look at any ancient buildings in Japan you’ll notice that most have these type of statues on the ends of the roofs. These Shachi are meant to protect the building from fire. The fact that the biggest danger to these castles is fire, as they are pretty well all wood other than the stone foundations. I was impressed to see that the entire castle is now protected by a sprinkler system, and they did a beautiful job concealing the pipes as best as is possible. I respect the old superstitions, but appreciate that they use modern science to keep these treasures safe.And like all the Japanese castles, the moats at Himeji are awesome.The castle and grounds are fantastic and deserve to be seen. It is a short walk from the train station and absolutely worth it.
Don’t worry, now that we are moving on to Hiroshima this post is not going to be a depressing history lesson. Hiroshima deserves much better than that. But I will be talking about the effect this event had on the over 140,000 civilians who were incinerated, burned, or traumatized by this event. People should be aware so as to hold our world leaders accountable when they casually discuss the options of conflict and include the use of nuclear weapons without what appears to be a second thought. Ok, I’ll hop off my soap box now and introduce you to what turned out to be one of our favourite cities in Japan.
Karen scored an absolute gem of a room for us in this hotel immediately across the river from Peace Park in central Hiroshima. The view from our room was amazing.
We were lucky enough to stumble across several restaurants that served delicious food and the people were welcoming and helpful at every turn.
We started off our time with a free walking tour around the Peace Park area. Our guide was phenomenal. She explained the many memorials and monuments you will find in the area. This one is the Gates of Peace. It is made up of 10 gates which are supposed to represent Dante’s 9 levels of hell. The 10th gate represents the 10th level of hell which is Hiroshima after the atomic bomb was dropped on it.
Nearly everything in this Peace Park is titled or somehow labeled “Peace” The city of Hiroshima believes it is its responsibility to make sure the world does not forget the death, misery, destruction, and senselessness of utilizing nuclear weapons. Though it probably does no good, every time a country tests a nuclear device the city sends a letter of protest to the heads of that government. The United States of America has been the recipient of the last two letters. Sadly there does not seem to be any slowing down in the quest to perfect our own destruction.
The children’s memorial is quite moving. Everyday….everyday, classes of Japanese students are bussed to the memorial and museum to learn about this bit of their history, and to acknowledge the 10’s of thousands of children who were killed at 8:15AM August 6, 1945.We were fortunate enough to come across a choir of children singing by the river on the edge of Peace Park. It was lovely to pause and soak it in.They have done a magnificent job of creating a memorial hall for the victims of the blast. To this day as they get new information it is added to the roll. The object in the middle represents a clock displaying 8:15.This mound is where the ashes of an estimated 80,000 people were piled. I found it a particularly poignant reminder of the shear number of people killed. One of the reasons no one will ever know the exact numbers is when the bomb was dropped the aiming point was a bridge junction but due to clouds and old technology it ended up 280 metres (which is still incredibly accurate considering the times) off target and detonated above a hospital. No warning was given and no one knew it was coming so everyone in the hospital simply disappeared. No bones, nothing. It was a very draining morning while we learned all this.This Flame of Peace was for me the most horrific memorial. There is a lot of water around and in the park. The reason for this was that after the explosion and incredible heat, in excess of 4000ºC at the hospital, the words that most survivors recall hearing is the wounded calling for water. The horrific part was that the bomb was detonated about 600 metres in the air. As it was raining that day the rain carried down the massive amount of radiation into the open mouths of the burned victims trying to get some relief, killing an estimated thousand more.
Ok, enough, I will stop. Having read a lot of books about this and watching documentaries gave me a decent background, but nothing could prepare me for the raw inhumanity of it. If you are ever in Japan, do yourself a favour and make this a stop. Yes it is sad and nasty, but it is also part of our very current history and we need to be reminded of that. Sorry, slipped back on the soap box for a second.
When you are there, go up and ring the Peace Bell. It has a beautiful tone and seems to ask for the hope of peace.
I hope you stuck with it and made it to the end. Thank you for reading.
