2011 Japan Study Tour: The Dome, kids with origami, weddings and okonomiyaki....

Thursday October 6

Hiroshima: 25 degrees and sunny

After yesterday’s downpour, on flinging open the curtains to my room, I found a perfect sunny day: blue skies and cicadas happily chirping in the hills near here!

Caught the train into Hiroshima from Saijo (about 40 mins) and then the street car or tram to Genbaku Dome Mae Station. Genbaku is atomic bomb in Japanese. As soon as you get off the street car you are confronted with the ruins of the Hiroshima Prefectural Industrial Promotion Hall: the famous A-bomb Dome. At one point there was debate about whether or not they would demolish it or leave it as a symbol of the devastation nuclear weapons cause. I for one think having it as a lasting reminder will hopefully make people remember what occurred here and ensure that it NEVER happens again!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

From the Promotional Hall we went to the Children’s Memorial. On the top of it is a figure of a young child with a crane. It represents all the children who were killed and the girl on the top is Sadako: of the 1000 cranes fame.

The memorial and eternal flame were built in such a way that you can see the Promotional Hall in the background.

Then it was off to the Museum. Having been there before and finding it very emotional, I didn’t want to walk around with a group of people. So I hung back and then went through it on my own. The dioramas at the start of the exhibition that show the before and after versions of Hiroshima were something I remembered from my last trip.

There is a lot of detailed information about Hiroshima and the war effort and also a lot of info on the atomic bomb and the decisions behind dropping the bomb.

One of the first exhibits is a wrist watch that stopped as the bomb fell on the city.

After a brief stop at the book store to buy a few bits and bods, it was on through to the main part of the museum that has many quite disturbing artifacts. As soon as you walk on you are confronted with a diorama with wax figures of atomic bomb victims. The mannequins have their skin dripping off them and their clothes burnt. Burnt clothes or rather, remains of burnt clothes are exhibited throughout the exhibit. They have the name of the person whose clothes they were and what happened to them. In almost every case they died a couple of days after the bombing of Hiroshima.

Two hundred and six metres from the hypocenter, the steps of the Sumitomo Bank have a person’s body burnt into the stone. All around the ‘shadow’ the stone has turned white from the heat rays.

Another exhibit shows the black rain that fell 20 to 30 minutes after the bomb exploded. This black rain has stained a white wall. One can only imagine what it would do to a human being. Many victims tried to drink the ‘rain’ as they were so thirsty after the bombing.

The saddest (if that is possible) exhibits is that of a tricycle: Shinichi Tetsutani was 3 years old when the atomic bomb killed him. His father buried him and his beloved tricycle in the backyard. Forty years later his father dug up the tricycle and his son’s remains. He interred his son in the family grave and donated the tricycle and a helmet to the museum.

After leaving the museum, I sat along the banks of the nearby river to have a bite to eat. As I was sitting there I started to think about what the river would have looked like on that day. From all my readings, I know that the river would have been filled with burned and, eventually, bloated bodies. People jumped into the river to find some relief and to find water to drink. I’m sorry I thought of it.

There were many primary school students at the Peace Park and they had a dialogue to read to people:

Hello. Can I ask you a question?

Where are you from?

Can you please show me on a map?

What is your favourite place in Japan/food/sport/word in Japanese?

Thank you. Here is a small present for you (at which time you were presented with origami).

See you.

The first time I was approached, I got a bit choked up.

By the 10^th to 11^th time, I was a bit over it! Then, on meeting up with Travis and Sue, we were accosted by Christians. All sorts in Hiroshima today!!

I visited the Atomic Bomb Memorial Mound were many people were cremated and buried:

And also the memorial to Korean victims of the bombing. Many Koreans were forcibly moved to Japan to assist with the war effort. Their treatment was quite disgusting.

Everywhere you go in the Peach Park, there are paper cranes everywhere.

After ringing the Peace Bell, Travis, Sue and I decided to head off to Shukkeien Gardens.

Shukkeien was built by Ueda Soko, a famous tea master and the name means “shrink-scenery gardens”. In the centre of the gardens is the Takuei Pond and around the pond are hills, valleys, bridges and tea cottages.

It also became a refuge after the bombing.

While we were there, we were fortunate enough to see two different couples having their wedding photos taken. So of course we took some too!!

After a pretty simple lunch (well for me anyway…..Trav and Sue had already gorged themselves), we headed to Okonomi Mura. Okonomiyaki or the Japanese version of a ‘pancake’ is a famous dish in Hiroshima. Hiroshima style okonomiyaki has yaki soba (fried soba noodles) on its base. Okonomi Mura is a ‘village’ (ok…..a four storey building) where you can eat okonomiyaki.

Drinking beer and watching the creation of our dinner was quite an experience: