Traveling in Japan: Hiroshima
Easily the most sobering experience I had during my 9 days of traveling in Japan during my winter vacation was my visit to Hiroshima's Peace Park.
If the park could be said to have a "lighthouse", the structure that signifies the location of the Peace Park, it's the Atomic Dome. The Atomic Dome was only named that after the fact (as you can imagine), but it had several purposes in the years before the atomic bomb was dropped as the Prefectual Industrial Promotion Hall. The Atomic Dome was one of the only buildings to remain standing after the atomic bomb was dropped. Thus, the area around it was chosen as the location of the Peace Park. It's skeletal remains set a bleak precedent for the remainder of the walk around the park.
Different statues and monuments are spread throughout Peace Park. There is a statue dedicated to the children who died in the blast or from complications related to the blast. Behind the monument, there are large glass boxes (each about the size of two phone booths) that are filled with thousands of origami cranes that have been sent by people (mostly school children) from around the world as a wish for world peace. These cranes have become a symbol of peace in Hiroshima. This is because of Sadako Sasaki who was 2 years old at the time of the blast, but developed leukemia at the age 11. She tried to make 1000 origami cranes before she died (cranes signify longevity and happiness in Japan), but she didn't finish before she died. Her classmates completed the project for her and then word spread.
On the other side of the park was a museum that explained a lot of the history behind the atomic bomb blast - everything from the planning and creation of the atomic bomb to the lasting effects that the atomic bomb has had on the people of Hiroshima and the world at large.
My favorite part of the Peace Park was a modern, circular-designed building called the National Peace Memorial Hall for the Atomic Bomb Victims. The first room you enter is spacious filled with symbolism (the number of tiles on the walls signified the number of estimated victims, for example) in which to silently contemplate and pay respects to the victims. They had digital archives for all of the victims of the blast. If you felt so inclined, you could look up the names of victims and find out some basic information about each one of them. There were also individual audio/visual accounts. I only stayed to listen to one of them, but it was truly horrifying. A woman described walking around immediately after the blast as her skin was falling off and her sister not being able to recognize her.
Besides Peace Park, I also visited Hiroshima-jo (Hiroshima Castle). Since the original castle had been destroyed in the atomic bomb blast, this was actually a reconstruction which was completed in 1958. The fortifactions surrounding the castle were surrounded by an impressive moat. The area directly surrounding the castle had once been filled with houses and barracks, but now there is a shrine and a lot of open area. Despite all of this, it was still worth a visit!*
The only other thing I had time for for my one day in Hiroshima was to visit the Manga Museum. Unfortunately for me, it was closed the day I tried to go. Maybe next time!
*A constant theme I noticed during my winter vacation here in Japan was just how much the U.S. military destroyed during their bombings towards the end of World War II. We all learned about the atomic bombs that were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, but around 60 other cities in Japan were bombed. As collateral damage in those bombings were some of Japan's national treasures: centuries-old castles.
What's strange to me in some ways is that most of the castles have been reconstructed. Most of the castles I visited had been destroyed in the WWII bombings, only to be rebuilt sometime after the war. None of them had been left in ruins as a symbol of WWII (like was done with the Atomic Dome), and none of them had been simply built over with other buildings. Some of them were rebuilt to look like they did before, more or less. However, some (especially the castle in Nagoya) was rebuilt with carpet and even an elevator inside of it.
In some ways I think this shows both the resilience of the Japanese people as well as their reverence for their past. As I've mentioned elsewhere on this blog, the Japanese have faced many disasters over the last century, whether man-made (war, economic crashes) or natural (tsunamis, earthquakes). With this in mind, I think resilience is definitely part of the Japanese spirit by this point in time. I also imagine these castles serve more of a purpose than just historical relics. They serve as symbols -cultural, psychological, historical - of a time that they can collectively revere as uniquely theirs in which their culture, and therefore their values, were at its purest form. The opening of Japan to foreign influence during the Meiji Restoration irreversably changed the direction of history in Japan. So I wonder if there is a bit of romanticization of the past there with the rebuilding of these castles.
If the park could be said to have a "lighthouse", the structure that signifies the location of the Peace Park, it's the Atomic Dome. The Atomic Dome was only named that after the fact (as you can imagine), but it had several purposes in the years before the atomic bomb was dropped as the Prefectual Industrial Promotion Hall. The Atomic Dome was one of the only buildings to remain standing after the atomic bomb was dropped. Thus, the area around it was chosen as the location of the Peace Park. It's skeletal remains set a bleak precedent for the remainder of the walk around the park.
Different statues and monuments are spread throughout Peace Park. There is a statue dedicated to the children who died in the blast or from complications related to the blast. Behind the monument, there are large glass boxes (each about the size of two phone booths) that are filled with thousands of origami cranes that have been sent by people (mostly school children) from around the world as a wish for world peace. These cranes have become a symbol of peace in Hiroshima. This is because of Sadako Sasaki who was 2 years old at the time of the blast, but developed leukemia at the age 11. She tried to make 1000 origami cranes before she died (cranes signify longevity and happiness in Japan), but she didn't finish before she died. Her classmates completed the project for her and then word spread.
On the other side of the park was a museum that explained a lot of the history behind the atomic bomb blast - everything from the planning and creation of the atomic bomb to the lasting effects that the atomic bomb has had on the people of Hiroshima and the world at large.
My favorite part of the Peace Park was a modern, circular-designed building called the National Peace Memorial Hall for the Atomic Bomb Victims. The first room you enter is spacious filled with symbolism (the number of tiles on the walls signified the number of estimated victims, for example) in which to silently contemplate and pay respects to the victims. They had digital archives for all of the victims of the blast. If you felt so inclined, you could look up the names of victims and find out some basic information about each one of them. There were also individual audio/visual accounts. I only stayed to listen to one of them, but it was truly horrifying. A woman described walking around immediately after the blast as her skin was falling off and her sister not being able to recognize her.
The only other thing I had time for for my one day in Hiroshima was to visit the Manga Museum. Unfortunately for me, it was closed the day I tried to go. Maybe next time!
*A constant theme I noticed during my winter vacation here in Japan was just how much the U.S. military destroyed during their bombings towards the end of World War II. We all learned about the atomic bombs that were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, but around 60 other cities in Japan were bombed. As collateral damage in those bombings were some of Japan's national treasures: centuries-old castles.
What's strange to me in some ways is that most of the castles have been reconstructed. Most of the castles I visited had been destroyed in the WWII bombings, only to be rebuilt sometime after the war. None of them had been left in ruins as a symbol of WWII (like was done with the Atomic Dome), and none of them had been simply built over with other buildings. Some of them were rebuilt to look like they did before, more or less. However, some (especially the castle in Nagoya) was rebuilt with carpet and even an elevator inside of it.
In some ways I think this shows both the resilience of the Japanese people as well as their reverence for their past. As I've mentioned elsewhere on this blog, the Japanese have faced many disasters over the last century, whether man-made (war, economic crashes) or natural (tsunamis, earthquakes). With this in mind, I think resilience is definitely part of the Japanese spirit by this point in time. I also imagine these castles serve more of a purpose than just historical relics. They serve as symbols -cultural, psychological, historical - of a time that they can collectively revere as uniquely theirs in which their culture, and therefore their values, were at its purest form. The opening of Japan to foreign influence during the Meiji Restoration irreversably changed the direction of history in Japan. So I wonder if there is a bit of romanticization of the past there with the rebuilding of these castles.
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