Before leaving Miyajima we could not resist to take a last look at the O-torii (yes, one more!), This time illuminated by the morning sun and covered with water. We went to the port where we caught the ferry JR about 9am, where we find hordes of tourists coming to the island soon. In Miyajimaguchi we took a train from JR Sanyo Line, which took half an hour to Hiroshima.
O-torii, Miyajima
The story of Hiroshima was marked so dismal on August 6, 1945 at 8:15 pm, when the atomic bomb fell on the city and its inhabitants. Hundreds of thousands died (even today the exact figure is not known) and most buildings were reduced to ashes. After another bomb dropped on Nagasaki, Japan surrendered in World War II. Despite all the horror lived, the people of Hiroshima soon began to rebuild their city, all except Genbaku Dome, which was left in ruins as a reminder of that tragic moment that killed so many Japanese.
In Hiroshima Station backpack and we headed to the tourist information office, where we were given a map and advised us to take tram 2 or 6 to reach the Memorial Peace Park, the main point of interest. This park is dedicated to the city that suffered the first nuclear attack in history and all its victims. First we visited we soon overcame, was the Genbaku Domu or Dome of the atomic bomb. This building is one of the few left standing despite being just 150 meters from the exact spot where the atomic bomb exploded. What was once a modern Industrial Promotion Hall, now stands as a ruined brick and metal testimony of that fateful day. For that reason it was declared a World Heritage Site by Unesco.
Genbaku Domu
Then we turn a little park to go to the hypocenter, the exact spot where the bomb exploded. In that place today Shima clinic, which had a plaque on the front where he explained the terrible event is raised. The feeling of being in that place was shocking for its symbolism, but there were no other explosion.
Then we cross the river Motoyasu to access the main area of the Park Memorial Peace. It was a stark expanse of gardens, as they had the role that the various memorials dotted. One is the Genbaku no Ko no Zo, the Children's Peace Monument, which depicts a boy holding a origami. It is a reminder to Sadako Sasaki, a girl bomb victim who spent hours in the hospital doing these paper figures.
Genbaku no Ko no Zo
Another shocking sights of the park is the Memorial Cenotaph, a small structure in memory of all victims of the bomb. In a chest inside 77 volumes which are written the names of more than 200,000 registered victims are. In the Cenotaph we could only stay quiet and still as we watched the elegant monument, with the bottom Genbaku Domu.
Memorial Cenotaph
Then we went to the Memorial Museum for Peace, which ended the day by saddened by the terrible things that are explained and shown. However, we liked it very much for all that we learned from what happened before, during and after the atomic bomb. In this museum building there is an explanatory tour of the events that occurred in World War II, before the pump. We found it particularly interesting that explained some panels that Hiroshima was chosen: the city had not been bombed during the war and so could see more clearly the effect of the pump. Another reason was that the city had no camps Allied prisoners of war, who would die with the bomb. All explanations found very objective, the Japanese are not presented only as victims, but it assumed its share of blame for what happened. We were surprised to find a wall all the letters sent by the mayor of Hiroshima every time a country makes a nuclear weapons test, sign of commitment to this city for the elimination of such weapons worldwide.
photo of Hiroshima shortly after the atomic bomb explode
The enormous level of destruction that the city suffered clearly shows two models: one is shown in what the city before the bomb. In the other, as was then a large expanse of ashes where some ruins emerged as the Genbaku Domu.
model of Hiroshima before the bomb
model of Hiroshima after the bomb
After the exhibition we went to the main building, where the hardest and most striking images of those who "hurt the sensibilities of the people." Here the dramatic effects of radiation and burns on people, testimonies of survivors ... taught the stairs of a building where there was a dark spot is exhibited for example, was the silhouette of a person who had been there and that the bomb had vanished! All photos showed with not avoided any unpleasant detail, some were so hard we had to pass by without looking at them. If the previous building had already left us sad, that we ended up sinking.
At the end we were almost two hours in the museum, and it was well worth going quietly reading different informative panels. It was around noon so we took the tram to go eat at Okonomimura, a site that houses dozens of restaurants specializing in the same: the Hiroshima style okonomiyaki. The okonomiyaki is a dish consisting of a mass with various ingredients cooked on the grill. In Hiroshima a filled with udon or soba noodle variant is made, so they are stronger. We chose one of the restaurants (they all looked very similar) and ordered one with and one with soba udon. We sat at the bar and in front of us was the cook adding different ingredients to the okonomiyaki over an iron that took up the entire table. It was very good, but also enoooorme and we were stuffed!
O-torii, Miyajima
The story of Hiroshima was marked so dismal on August 6, 1945 at 8:15 pm, when the atomic bomb fell on the city and its inhabitants. Hundreds of thousands died (even today the exact figure is not known) and most buildings were reduced to ashes. After another bomb dropped on Nagasaki, Japan surrendered in World War II. Despite all the horror lived, the people of Hiroshima soon began to rebuild their city, all except Genbaku Dome, which was left in ruins as a reminder of that tragic moment that killed so many Japanese.
In Hiroshima Station backpack and we headed to the tourist information office, where we were given a map and advised us to take tram 2 or 6 to reach the Memorial Peace Park, the main point of interest. This park is dedicated to the city that suffered the first nuclear attack in history and all its victims. First we visited we soon overcame, was the Genbaku Domu or Dome of the atomic bomb. This building is one of the few left standing despite being just 150 meters from the exact spot where the atomic bomb exploded. What was once a modern Industrial Promotion Hall, now stands as a ruined brick and metal testimony of that fateful day. For that reason it was declared a World Heritage Site by Unesco.
Genbaku Domu
Then we turn a little park to go to the hypocenter, the exact spot where the bomb exploded. In that place today Shima clinic, which had a plaque on the front where he explained the terrible event is raised. The feeling of being in that place was shocking for its symbolism, but there were no other explosion.
Then we cross the river Motoyasu to access the main area of the Park Memorial Peace. It was a stark expanse of gardens, as they had the role that the various memorials dotted. One is the Genbaku no Ko no Zo, the Children's Peace Monument, which depicts a boy holding a origami. It is a reminder to Sadako Sasaki, a girl bomb victim who spent hours in the hospital doing these paper figures.
Genbaku no Ko no Zo
Another shocking sights of the park is the Memorial Cenotaph, a small structure in memory of all victims of the bomb. In a chest inside 77 volumes which are written the names of more than 200,000 registered victims are. In the Cenotaph we could only stay quiet and still as we watched the elegant monument, with the bottom Genbaku Domu.
Memorial Cenotaph
Then we went to the Memorial Museum for Peace, which ended the day by saddened by the terrible things that are explained and shown. However, we liked it very much for all that we learned from what happened before, during and after the atomic bomb. In this museum building there is an explanatory tour of the events that occurred in World War II, before the pump. We found it particularly interesting that explained some panels that Hiroshima was chosen: the city had not been bombed during the war and so could see more clearly the effect of the pump. Another reason was that the city had no camps Allied prisoners of war, who would die with the bomb. All explanations found very objective, the Japanese are not presented only as victims, but it assumed its share of blame for what happened. We were surprised to find a wall all the letters sent by the mayor of Hiroshima every time a country makes a nuclear weapons test, sign of commitment to this city for the elimination of such weapons worldwide.
photo of Hiroshima shortly after the atomic bomb explode
The enormous level of destruction that the city suffered clearly shows two models: one is shown in what the city before the bomb. In the other, as was then a large expanse of ashes where some ruins emerged as the Genbaku Domu.
model of Hiroshima before the bomb
model of Hiroshima after the bomb
After the exhibition we went to the main building, where the hardest and most striking images of those who "hurt the sensibilities of the people." Here the dramatic effects of radiation and burns on people, testimonies of survivors ... taught the stairs of a building where there was a dark spot is exhibited for example, was the silhouette of a person who had been there and that the bomb had vanished! All photos showed with not avoided any unpleasant detail, some were so hard we had to pass by without looking at them. If the previous building had already left us sad, that we ended up sinking.
At the end we were almost two hours in the museum, and it was well worth going quietly reading different informative panels. It was around noon so we took the tram to go eat at Okonomimura, a site that houses dozens of restaurants specializing in the same: the Hiroshima style okonomiyaki. The okonomiyaki is a dish consisting of a mass with various ingredients cooked on the grill. In Hiroshima a filled with udon or soba noodle variant is made, so they are stronger. We chose one of the restaurants (they all looked very similar) and ordered one with and one with soba udon. We sat at the bar and in front of us was the cook adding different ingredients to the okonomiyaki over an iron that took up the entire table. It was very good, but also enoooorme and we were stuffed!
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