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| Hiroshima |  |
1st kanji: "hiro" (hero)=wide, broad 2nd kanji: "shima" (she-ma)=island |
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| say: Hero-she-ma | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| The Hall of Rememberance and detail of the fountain |
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| I think this hall was recently constructed, since it isn't mentioned in my guidebook (1997). It is a circular, underground hall which "provides recollection of the victims, prayer for the peaceful repose of their souls, and contemplation of peace." There is a circular wall above the hall, and through a 'window' in it you can see a glass fountain. It represents a clock, with the hands set at 8:15, the time of the bombing. All around it are bits of buildings, houses, walls, etc recovered after the attack. To the right and down a flight of stairs was the entrance. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| We followed the route, in a cirlcle down a ramp. Every few feet there was a small plaque that told us some really depressing facts about the bombing. The building was so quiet, but we could hear the soft sound of running water. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| We ended up here, in a tall circular room with a fountain in the center and a mosaic covering the wall. This fountain was also a 'clock' displaying 8:15. The mosaic is made of 140,000 tiles--the approximate number of people who had died by the end of 1945. It is from a photo taken the hypocenter, soon after the blast. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Offical Site | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| We also explored the Peace Museum. Out front, there is a large reflecting pool with a flame burning in the center. It is not an eternal flame-it will be extinguished when there are no longer nuclear bombs on Earth. It has been burning since 1964, when it was lit. The cenotaph stands between it and the museum. Standing | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| wth your back to the museum, looking through the cenotaph (under which is a case holding volumes of all the names of known victims (updated every year)) you can see the the Flame and Pool of Peace, with Dome in the background. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Cenotaph, Flame of Peace, Pool of Peace and A-Bomb Dome | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Inside the museum we found a lot of information regarding almost anything about the war, the bomb, nuclear bombs and war, the effects on Hiroshima, etc. It was very interesting... and very sad, of course. We entered a little too close to closing time, so we didn't get to explore as much as we would have liked. However, if I spent much more time in there, I may have cried... To the left are real artifacts from the blast. You can see crumpled metal boxes, rice bowls metled together, deformed glassware, statues, pieces of buildings... Below is the model of Hiroshima just moments before the blast. If you hold your mouse cursor over the picture, you will see what Hiroshima looked like after. Clicking them will take you to the large "before" picture Underneath are links to the "afters". |
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| (A red stick and a card mark the hypocenter) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| "Hiroshima After" picture (large size) | "Hiroshima After" picture (large size) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Hiroshima | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
