Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park
After we checked in our hotel in Hiroshima, we hopped on a street car and went to the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park.
The park is a sobering reminder of the devastation and destruction from World War II. The park is a few hundred meters from the epicenter of the atomic bomb, which was dropped on August 9, 1945 and then three days later in Nagasaki.
The building in this photo is of the A-Bomb dome, a UNESCO heritage site, and one of the few buildings that survived the bombing.
The park is full of specific memorials focused on different groups. One example is a monument in honor of students that were studying abroad in Hiroshima.
We also went into one of the two museum buildings. It really demonstrated the large impact of the bomb. The first hand accounts are truly touching. The area's residents continue to be impacted as the effects last and have ongoing impact. Given no one had ever seen the bomb before, no one understood the impacts. It was heartbreaking to hear how people drank the water in the river to stop the burning, which obviously was impacted and unsafe.
The flame in picture above (under the arch) will be lit until there are no more atomic bombs in the world. We saw references (and "children") of this flame throughout our travels in Japan.
This was by far the most sobering place we went to Japan, but I thought it set the stage for many other places we saw within Japan.
Time in park: 1.5 hrs
Times visited: 1
Overall: B+
The park is a sobering reminder of the devastation and destruction from World War II. The park is a few hundred meters from the epicenter of the atomic bomb, which was dropped on August 9, 1945 and then three days later in Nagasaki.
The building in this photo is of the A-Bomb dome, a UNESCO heritage site, and one of the few buildings that survived the bombing.
The park is full of specific memorials focused on different groups. One example is a monument in honor of students that were studying abroad in Hiroshima.
We also went into one of the two museum buildings. It really demonstrated the large impact of the bomb. The first hand accounts are truly touching. The area's residents continue to be impacted as the effects last and have ongoing impact. Given no one had ever seen the bomb before, no one understood the impacts. It was heartbreaking to hear how people drank the water in the river to stop the burning, which obviously was impacted and unsafe.
The flame in picture above (under the arch) will be lit until there are no more atomic bombs in the world. We saw references (and "children") of this flame throughout our travels in Japan.
This was by far the most sobering place we went to Japan, but I thought it set the stage for many other places we saw within Japan.
Time in park: 1.5 hrs
Times visited: 1
Overall: B+
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