Peace Park and Memorial Museum, Hiroshima

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According to the Hiroshima Sightseeing Guide Map, the Peace Memorial Park comprises 67 monuments but the major landmarks you will most probably be interested to see include the Children's Peace Monument, Memorial Cenotaph and Peace Bell.

The unique saddle shape of the Memorial Cenotaph already caught my attention at the Peace Memorial Museum. It was sobering to go up close and personal and see for myself the stone chest that held the names of all those killed by the bomb. An even more sobering experience when I thought of how the list was regularly updated to include the names of people who die from radiation-related illnesses due to the bombing. There was a constant stream of people who stood solemnly to pay their respects; it felt nice that these people weren't forgotten. Walk closer to the epitaph to have a better look at the phrase "Let all the souls here rest in peace, for we shall not repeat the evil" and you will get a good view of the Peace Flame and the A-bomb Dome.

The Children's Peace Monument was a statue of a girl with outstretched arms. If you visit the museum, you'll learn of the story of Sadako who succumbed to leukemia 10 years after the bombing. Well, this monument was campaigned by her classmates after she died so as to remember her and all other child victims. It was heartwarming for me to learn that children not only had the capacity to care deeply but also had the determination to follow through their big dream.

Last thing to note: Do visit this Peace Park while the sun is setting, for you will get a beautiful view of the A-Bomb Dome across the river.

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If you are keen to visit Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum, I recommend that you check out Frommer's Japan for its detailed and thorough review. Every thing that I experienced there was adequately described in this review. But if you wish to read a more personal account, then please read on;)

The museum's gruesome images will probably ruin your day but I reckon that it is important to steel yourself and pay it a visit, for this will help you to understand the psyche of the people in Hiroshima better. At the beginning, I blinked my eyes a couple of times as I couldn't believe that the entrance fee was a mere 50 yen. Even a bottle of mineral water costed 100 yen in Japan! Moreover, once I stepped into the gallery, I could see many volunteer guides positioning themselves near the exhibits and taking the initiative to explain them to visitors. There were pictures of letters written by successive Hiroshima mayors to protest against nuclear experimentation. All these little things added up and I was moved by Hiroshima's sincerity and determination in its quest to warn the world of the evils of nuclear warfare.

I suggest that you pay a visit to the Video Theatre where you can watch two English documentaries on the nuclear bombing. Each documentary lasted for about an hour, so I only had the time (and patience!) to catch the first documentary on an appeal for peace from a mother who had lost her son to the bombing. I felt that this hour was very well spent as I got an inkling of the various issues that surfaced from this tragedy--the immediate fallout, the devastasting effects of radiation and Hiroshima's effects to pave the way as a peace adovcate. It greatly facilitated my understanding and appreciation of the exhibits.

I guess the saddest thing for me was coming across so many real-life exhibits of junior high school students who had perished while working at their building demolition work sites. Why did they even have to demolish buildings in the first place? They were barely teenagers! It then struck me hard that I was blessed to be born into a world where I could enjoy peace. Every single day.

I'm working in Japanese elementary and junior high schools now. I have learnt that every Japanese child knows how to fold a crane, for it is their responsibility to come together as an entire class and fold 1000 cranes when they go for study trips to either Nagasaki or Hiroshima. Well, it was interesting for me to learn how this practice of folding cranes had originated from Sadako, a child victim of the bombing. She was 2 when the bombing happened and suffered no immediate health problems but when she turned 12, she developed leukemia. Believing that she would be cured if she folded 1000 cranes, she did so but to no avail. Nowadays, generations of Japanese children carry on this custom as a remembrance to the children who had perished.

Lest this review ends on a depressing note, I shall end here by sharing how the last photograph the visitor would see before he left the museum was a display explaining how new buds had sprouted in spring the next year after the bombing. It was gratifying to know that when there is life, there is hope.

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The Peace Memorial Museum in Hiroshima is housed in a modernist concrete building. The ground floor of the museum contains information panels describing the events leading up to the dropping of the bomb; two scale models of the city (‘before’ and ‘after’) and a scale replica of the Atom Bomb Dome, the only surviving (but ruined) building still standing, which can be seen nearby. This is covered with facsimiles of letters sent by mayors of Hiroshima to various world leaders to protest against nuclear weapons tests. Every time a test takes place, a strongly-worded letter of outrage is despatched to the relevant leader. I found this exhibit the most interesting, and most moving, part of the ground floor exhibition.

I would have liked the historical information panels to provide more explanation of the motivation behind the events that led up to Japan’s entry into the war and the subsequent war in the Pacific rather than just relating what happened.

The upper level deals with the aftermath of the bomb. Information panels tell the stories of those who were caught up in the blast and items on display include shredded and burned clothing and roof tiles twisted and fused by the heat. This is all very moving, but for me, a recreation of the aftermath complete with waxworks of people with burned and melting skin struck a rather off-key Chamber of Horrors note.

More affecting is the story of a child who survived the initial blast only to develop leukaemia ten years later. She hoped to change her fortune by making 1,000 paper cranes, but it did not work. She is commemorated in the Children’s Peace Monument in the Peace Park.

Admission to the museum is 50 yen.

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The ‘Atom Bomb Dome’ is the twisted remains of the former Hiroshima Prefectural Industrial Promotion Hall.

The building, designed by a Czech architect, Jan Letzel, was completed in April 1915 and its green dome became a city landmark.

On the morning of 6 August 1945 the atomic bomb exploded approximately 600 m above and 160 m south-east of the building, killing everyone within. But because the blast was almost directly overhead, some of the walls and the iron frame supporting the dome survived. For a number of years after the war, public opinion was divided as to whether the structure should be retained as a memorial or demolished, but in 1966 the City Council resolved to preserve the building as it looked immediately after the bombing. In 1996 the site was registered on the World Heritage List.

Inside the Peace Memorial museum is a reconstruction of the building, covered with facsimiles of letters of protest about atomic weapons testing sent by the mayors of Hiroshima to world leaders.

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This is what is left of the dome. On August 6th 1945, the US bomber Enola Gay, dropped a 13-15 kiloton atomic bomb on Hiroshima. The bomb detonated with an air-burst immediately vaporizing all the unfortunate within the hypocenter. Buildings were flattened, combusted, and disintegrated everywhere within the blast radius. Only the hardiest of buildings had skeletal features left standing. One of these was what had most recently been called the Hiroshima Prefectural Industrial Promotion Hall, and after the war referred to as the A-bomb (Genbaku) dome.

Following the war's ending it had been debated whether the dome should be torn down or preserved. Fortunately it was preserved. Without it, younger generations might not realize what had once happened. The dome is a stark reminder to the horror the modern warfare can bear and unfortunately worse.

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There are a number of areas to see around Hiroshima Peace Park including the museum itself.
Much of what is here is one of mankind's present day reminders of how bad it can get. This place is to remind us of those who died in the immediate blast and wake of the first use of an atomic bomb on a human population. We should hope that it never happens again as the next time will likely be far worse than Hiroshima or Nagasaki.
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Ironically, as North Korea and Iran and others try to develop these weapons they're only more likely to have such weapons be used against their own population. Stupid.

We would be better off without such weapons than with them. Still the world seems significantly ignorant of how horrible these weapons are. When your neighbor has a gun and you have a gun, you have a much better chance of shooting each other than if neither of you had a gun. The same goes for nukes. Now that India has the bomb and Pakistan has the bomb, they're more likely to destroy one another (MAD - mutual assured destruction). Stupid.

We can only hope that Japan never develops the bomb in response to North Korea. If it does then I don't think mankind will have any hope left. Hiroshima and Nagasaki must be remembered. Their prior destruction would be in vain if Japan reversed its stance on possession of such weapons of horror. Keep in mind the weapons used then are minuscule compared to some of today's nuclear weapons. If a large scale nuclear exchange took place today between the US and another serious nuclear power, American deaths would number over 100 million within the first hour.

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Its the best place to learn what happened in Hiroshima on August 6 1945 and up to now. Some terribly tragic photos are difficult to see straight but the collections are real and learn a lot about the atomic bomb and its cruel consequences.

The devastating blast of the Atomic Bomb over Hiroshima killed thousands upon thousands of innocent people and their charred remains were left strewn all over the city. Many of the bodies could not be readily identified and many of the bodies found in central Hiroshima were brought to this bank on the river where they were cremated and their ashes buried. Immediate donations funded the building of a vault and chapel where the ashes were kept, but in 1955 the city council took over the mound and rebuilt the vault. The ashes of other unclaimed and unidentified bodies were moved here to be kept safely. The vault inside the mound contains the ashes of around 75000 victims. The mound can be seen in the Memorial Park close to the Korean Monument.