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The Atomic Bomb Dome -- the preserved remains of a government building yards away from ground zero. |
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Hiroshima....very shocking. I never expected to feel so awkward at this place. As soon as I got off the trolley and saw the dome at the peace park, I saw more death, more fear, more destruction than I ever had. -JH |
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The remnants of the building have been kept intact as a reminder of what happened August 6, 1945. |
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Memorial Tower to the Mobilized Students |
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This tower recalls middle school and older students who had been mobilized to help with the war effort in Hiroshima about a year before the atomic bomb attack. Many of those killed in the initial blast were children serving in munitions factories. |
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Base of the Memorial Tower to the Mobilized Students |
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Children's Peace Monument inspired by the story of Sadako Sasaki who hoped her radiation-induced lukemia might be cured by folding 1000 origami cranes |
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Children continue to bring paper cranes to this monument, many praying for world peace. |
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Peace Museum with the Flame of Peace in the foreground. |
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Looking through the Cenotaph-monument with the names of over 100,000 victims of the blast. |
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Atomic Bomb Memorial Mound where the cremated ashes of about 70,000 of the dead are buried. |
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Phoenix trees -- trees near ground zero that survived the blast, bearing burnt marks on one side. |
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What I enjoyed the most at the peace park was learning about the Phoenix trees and how they survived and grew back after the attack. I admire a lot the Japanese society for their Phoenix tree philosophy to outgrow the misery the war left on their lives, "rising from ashes." -JH |
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Peace Bell |
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There were hundreds of Japanese school children on field trips to the Peace Park. Quite a few came up to us and asked us to write in their journals our feelings about world peace. Many lined up to ring the peace bell. |
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After visiting the peace park, we went to Miyajima, an island off the coast of Hiroshima, which is accessible by ferry. |
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Itsukushima-jinja Torii -- "floating torii" that marks the seaward entrance to the shrine |
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Although the tide was low and we did not get to see Itsukushima-jinja "floating," we were able to walk out to it and see where people had embedded coins into its pillars as prayer offerings. |
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Itsukushima-jinja behind the great torii |
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