Hiroshima

One of the only buildings left standing after the bomb

Memorial to the lost children

Hiroshima was a very different experience to anywhere else in Japan and it was really worth visiting. We arrived in the afternoon and headed straight out to the A-bomb dome, memorial park and peace museum. The first thing you see in the park is the shell of an old building that was one of the only things left standing when the Americans dropped the atomic bomb Enola Gay on Hiroshima on 6^th August 1945. The Japanese have conserved the bones of the building so you can still make out its structure. It is absolutely incredible that it stood up against the blast and the reason given for this is that the atomic bomb was dropped directly above the building which meant as the blast radiated outwards, it was able to withstand the pressure. The whole of the rest of the city was totally flattened and wiped out with the blast and radiation. As you walk around the park, the next thing you see is the memorial to the lost children with thousands of origami cranes hanging in a glass cabinet that have been sent in from all around the world. Further along, there is a statue with a flame inside it that represents the desire for the world to be free of nuclear weapons. The flame was lit by a survivor from the blast who found a flame in the remains of his uncle's house and carried the flame to where it stands today. On the memorial, it is written that the flame will remain lit until every last atomic weapon is gone from the world. 

A child's charred lunch box

After the park, we went to the peace museum, giving ourselves 2 hours to look around until it closed. We really underestimated the amount of time we would need. The museum was excellent, with so much detail on Hiroshima, before and after the bomb was dropped. Some of the exhibits inside included letters from Einstein to president Roosevelt, letters from the mayor of Hiroshima to Barak Obama asking him to stop testing nuclear weapons, models of what Hiroshima looked like before and after the blast, and a whole section on nuclear weapons today and the potential threats. The most harrowing part of the museum however, was the section on the victims, where you could read the stories of people who had been killed instantly in the blast and of those who had been killed many years later due to the effects of radiation. Exhibits included an old lunch box with charred food inside it, people's hair that had fallen out, and ceramic roof tiles that had melted in the extreme heat.  The most touching story of all, was of a 9 year old girl who had been 2 years old when the bomb was dropped. Seven years later she developed leukaemia and was taken into hospital. She had read that folding paper cranes brings good luck and she believed that if she could fold 1000 cranes she would survive. Sadly, she didn't get her wish and her death sparked a demand for a memorial for all of the children affected by the bomb to be built. In the museum you can see the cranes that she folded. They are absolutely minuscule and it is difficult to imagine how she folded them. Apparently she used a pin to fold them as they got smaller and smaller because she believed that the more intricate they were, the more chance she would have that her wish would come true. 

I left the museum quite depressed, and am still a little depressed typing this. However, it gave us some perspective on little things that we had been arguing about the day before and really brought it home to us just what a tragedy the dropping of the bomb over Hiroshima was. You can't appreciate until you see it, just how many lives it affected in so many ways; not just on the day it was dropped, but years later, with people living the rest of their lives in constant fear of what effects the radiation would have on them. I would say that if you visit Japan, you should definitely try to get down to Hiroshima and learn about this important part of modern history.

We didn't spend all of our time in Hirsohima visiting monuments related to the A-Bomb. Hiroshima is also famous for a shrine at Miraynma that stands in the ocean. It is one of the most famous views in Japan. We took a ferry over to go and see it, and once again there were hundreds of deer scattered about. Unfortunately, we got there at low tide so most of the shrine was not submerged in the sea but had tourists walking underneath it, pushing money into the cracks. Nevertheless, it was still a sight to behold and it was set amongst the stunning backdrop of mountains and sea. I said to Jemma that I thought the landscape was more impressive than similar landscapes that we had paid a lot of money to see in New Zealand. We didn't pay any money in Japan to see Miraynma.  

At night, we went on a hunt for a restaurant that had been recommended in the guide book that Jemma desperately wanted to try. It served Hiroshima's speciality dish, Okonamia, Okonamia are similar to pancakes, and at the restaurant we went to, they make them infront of you on a hot plate. They fill them with beansprouts, noodles and fish and then crack an egg on top. For the final touch, they pour a generous helping of special sauce. 

 Unfortunately for me, I liked everything but the sauce and the green nori powder they sprinkle inside them, which meant I just had to pick out the noodles and Jemma had to eat the rest. It was still a great experience though to eat in such a traditional eatery and have the food made in front of you (even if the woman who made them did have a cold and kept wiping her nose with her hand!). 

Hiroshima photos