Due to obvious reasons the whole central area of Hiroshima is new, it seems to us even proudly so. There are skyscrappers and modern buildings everywhere. Even the boulevard in front of our hotel, the Peace Boulevard was possible only due to the fact that there was nothing left from the houses that formerly stood in the area.
We then cross into the former downtown area where the nuclear bomb was detonated. Nothing really survived here and it has been turned now into a park and a museum, the Peace Park and Peace Museum, as a memorial to the dead but also as a reminder to the crazy but hopeful notion that maybe this will not repeat itself.
The majority of the memorials to the victims are located on this central island. We start with an interesting peace memorial that has inscribed the word peace in over 100 languages. We walk under it and around it and find a few languages that we recognize and then we move towards the Peace Museum on the other side of the road.
The museum seems to consist of two buildings joined by a walkway and it takes a bit to find the entrance as we go to the wrong building first and then have to walk to the other one to enter.
In front of the museum the area is landscaped differently than we are used in Japan with little vegetation but even so we notice butterflies and birds enjoying the little green areas that remain.
The Museum is sobering and it is sometime difficult to endure but it is something that maybe everyone should see once to remember and make sure that it does not happen again. The first building has a bit of the history behind the war including how important Hiroshima was to the Japanese Empire as it was a major military headquarter of the Japanese armny and during previous wars even served as the residence of the emperor. The major exhibit here is a scale model of Hiroshima before and after the bombing showing the few building that survived the explosion.
The second building is showing different objects and clothing of people affected by the bombing and there are also a few survivor/non survivor stories. It also talks about how the search effort was conducted and how the reconstruction proceeded afterwards.
Overall the theme is “never again” including a petition to sign at the end for the world to destroy all nuclear bombs. Which we really support after seeing this really sombering museum. But ideally end all wars if possible?
