Hiroshima is intense. Our hotel was just a few minutes walk away from the Peace Memorial Park, the place dedicated to the legacy of Hiroshima and to the memories of the direct and indirect victims of the world’s first nuclear attack in 1945.
Peace Memorial Park
The Peace Park is built on land that was once the city’s busiest downtown commercial and residential district. After the bomb explosion there was only an open field left. Today this area has been transformed into a place to learn and remember; museums, memorials and monuments are there to help to not forget about the devastation caused by the bomb.
To get to the Peace Park we had to cross a bridge, from where a change in atmosphere was instantly quite noticeable. It’s a beautiful park, all the memorials are well designed and the words provided to explain some of the background are chosen well. They don’t make you feel guilty, but they provide food for thought and put your own life (with all its little dramas and issues) into perspective.
We explored the park, the memorials and monuments, and visited the Peace Memorial Hall, the Peace Memorial Museum and the Memorial Cenotaph. It’s impossible to describe what’s going on in your head when you
- see pictures of what the area looked like before and straight after the attack
- hear witnesses talk about having had to leave their children trapped in ruins to die
- see clothes victims were wearing that day
- watch videos of nuclear tests and the effects on animals and humans
- view the visualisation of 140,000 victims (represented by tiles in an artwork)
- read letters outlining why Hiroshima is ‘the best location’ to drop a bomb.
I won’t even try to put this experience into words. But there is one thing both Kai and I agreed on: if every person in the world was made to visit Hiroshima, Pearl Harbor (which we visited earlier in 2012), Auschwitz Concentration Camp and maybe ANZAC Cove (for those from the southern hemisphere), the world would be a better place. How could anyone see what impact war has on individuals, communities and even the economy, and not wanting to prevent it in the future?
Crossing the bridge to Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park.
The monument in the center depicts 8:15, the time the A-bomb was dropped. Around it lie roof tiles and other objects from the hall’s ruins.
Peace Memorial Hall: the artwork at the top consists of 140,000 tiles, representing the number of victims of the attack.
Hiroshima’s ground representing the last couple of decades: a layer of debris and ash can clearly be seen.
A-bomb dome
For more pictures from the museum (warning: some are quite explicit) see “Life to reset: Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum & Memorial Hall for the atomic bomb victims“.
Dreamination
Luckily not everything in Hiroshima is all gloomy and overshadowed by history.
Right in front of our hotel started this year’s Dreamination display. Dreamination is the winter festival of electric lights, and it tells a wonderful story through brightly lit displays along a major boulevard in town. Here’s a map of what we got to see this year [PDF, 791KB].
Walking along the light displays in the cold, warmly wrapped in winter clothes, gloves , scarves and hats, it was the first time in years that I got into a real Christmas mood. Even after eight Decembers in New Zealand, having Christmas in summer still doesn’t feel right.
Dreamination: You’re gonna need a bigger boat.
Dreamination: Pretty lights are pretty.
Dreamination: The order of the phoenix.
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