After spending a few weeks in Japan, we couldn’t very well ignore a city whose name is at the forefront of any peace petitions or discussions: Hiroshima. We visited the peace park right on sunset on our second-last day in Japan.
It’s impossible not to be affected when you see the bomb dome, visit the peace park and imagine. For the residents who lived through, it must be overwhelmingly hard to see the crumbling bricks and twisted metal and remember.
I won’t forget.
Hiroshima city is built on a delta, this is just one of the forks
Japanese legend promises the person who folds 1000 origami cranes is granted one wish
Some believe that by folding the 1000 cranes you will recover from illness; perhaps the most famous story is that of Sadako Sasaki
The monument to Teachers and Children of the elementary schools
A poignant sunset at the Peace Park
Just above the peace flame, the atomic bomb dome can be seen
Vast numbers of children were affected by the atomic bomb, growing up ill from the radiation
The Japanese characters around the crane spell ‘heiwa’: Peace
Very near the epicentre, the bomb dome is a real reminder of the horror
I’m glad they left it though. Some things should never be forgotten
Even though it stands, it’s fairly unstable, so a lot of reinforcing has been used
