Page 220 - (DK Eyewitness) Travel Guide: Japan

218  JAP AN REGION B Y REGION

a Hiroshima
Hiroshima
For the worst of reasons, Hiroshima needs no intro duction.
Each year millions of visitors are drawn to the city where so
many people were wiped out in one instant of apocalyptic
destruction. An unusual tourist attraction, the sober
monuments of Hiroshima can induce an unexpected sense of
listlessness and enervation in many visitors. However, there is The Peace Memorial Museum, with exhibits
more to the recon structed city than its sorrowful atomic legacy. on the bomb’s effects

park is the Children’s Peace
Monument, depicting a girl
with outstretched hands. A
crane, the Japanese symbol of
longevity and happiness, passes
above her. The work refers to
the story of a child victim of the
bomb who be lieved that if she
could make 1,000 paper cranes
she would recover from her
Hiroshima’s Peace Memorial Park and the A-Bomb Dome illness. The girl did not survive,
but her story is known through-
Exploring Hiroshima rivers, just outside the park out Japan, and fresh paper
Rather than resurrect the proper, the A-Bomb Dome is cranes sent by school children
tortu ous pre-war streets, the a haunting reminder of the adorn the memorial.
mod ern city was rebuilt on a destructive forces that were Across the road is the Flame
grid system, making it easy to unleashed on the city. The former of Peace, which will be extin-
neg otiate. Trams are the most Industrial Promotion Hall stood guished only when all nuclear
convenient form of transport- close to the hypo center, or weapons have been eliminated
ation. Downtown Hiroshima lies ground zero, the point at from the earth. Adja cent to it is
to the east of the Peace Park. which the bomb ex ploded. The the Cenotaph, designed by
The lively nightlife area of occupants of the building were Kenzo Tange, for the victims
Nagarekawa is not far away. killed instantly. Its twisted girders, of the bomb. It contains the
gaping holes, and piles of names of all those who died,
rubble have been preserved as together with an inscription
a UNESCO World Heritage Site. that reads “Rest in peace. We
By the northern entrance to will never repeat the error.”
the park is the Peace Bell, which The centerpiece of the park is
visitors can ring them selves. the Peace Memorial Museum.
Nearby is the Memorial Mound This graphically explains the
containing the ashes of tens of consequences of the bomb on
thousands of people cremated the city by means of photos,
on this spot. Farther into the videos, and the victims’ personal
The Bombing of Hiroshima
As World War II dragged on into
the summer of 1945, the US
decided to deploy an entirely
new weapon to force Japan to
surrender. On August 6 a B29
bomber dropped the first atomic
The A-Bomb Dome, all that remains of the bomb on Hiroshima, a city that
old bombed city had seen little conventional
bombing. It exploded at 8:15am,
580 m (1,900 ft) above the city
Y Peace Memorial Park The ruins of Hiroshima in 1945, all but
v Genbaku-Domu-mae. Museum: center. Tens of thousands of flattened by the atomic blast
Tel (082) 241-4004. Open 8:30am– people were killed instantly by
the blast, and the death toll rose
6pm daily (Aug: to 7pm; Dec–Feb: to 180–200,000 over the following years as after-effects took hold.
to 5pm). & Nagasaki (see pp244–5) suffered a similar fate three days later.
Located at the confluence of
the Honkawa and Motoyasu
For hotels and restaurants see pp304–5 and pp331–3

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