Day 6 – Hiroshima & Miyajima Island at Night

Today we visited the Hiroshima A Bomb Dome, Peace Memorial and Museum. After stopping for brekky and some beautiful gift purchasing, we hopped on a loop bus at the Hiroshima Train Terminal, using our JR pass.

Given flowers by the bus attendants, I placed mine at a memorial site.

As expected, it was a harrowing experience and I was glad I didn’t wear mascara. I am still having difficulty reconciling the place it was then and how it is now a thriving, beautiful city after such devastation. It felt like they were worlds away from each other.

We visit the key memorial and then continued to the Museum, after purchasing a very reasonably priced ticket and ear phone tour set (I highly recommend), we began the tour in the part of the museum that wasn’t under construction.

At 8:15 am Monday, 6 August 1945 an atomic bomb “Little Boy” was dropped on Hiroshima, and exploded 600m up in the air, above the hypocentre. The explosion directly killed 70,000 people and in the ensuing months the acute affects of radiation caused the death of a total 140,000 people.  Initially around 30% of the population of Hiroshima were killed by the blast and resultant firestorm, and another 70,000 injured.

The bomb caused widespread desolation of the city, a mushroom cloud that could be seen over 10km away and a firestorm raged throughout the city from the hypocentre. About 70% of the city’s buildings were destroyed.

Then black rain fell from the sky, with residue from the bomb blast.

There are many monuments commemorating those who have died and the Children’s Shrine (can ring the crane shaped bell) plays homage to the thousands of paper cranes made for and by Sadako Sakai. She was a young girl who contracted leukaemia years after the atomic bomb, and folded thousands of cranes up until the day she died wishing to live. There is also a Chinese Parasol Tree that was exposed to radiation a few hundred metres away from the hypocentre, hollowing out the truck, but the tree continued to grow around the hole as if protecting itself.

The Hiroshima Bank was one of the few surviving buildings left standing in the city. All that remains of the person sitting there when the atom bomb hit, is a shadow on the step.  

Poetry inscribed on plaque and Obama’s pledge to uphold peace.

Below is the watch of a victim of the attack, a gift from his son that and he was never without it. It depicts the exact time the bomb struck Hiroshima.
Survivors where worried that nothing would grow in Hiroshima for 75 years after the bomb blast, but new life sprouted and hope returned, it was just a matter of time.

After the tour, I sat and listened to the testimonials of victims recounting their experiences of that day and the losses they had suffered. The photographer who arrived on scene after the bomb exploded could only take five pictures in total in the hours he was there, because he felt too overwhelmed to capture such human suffering. There were human remains within the museum that had very significant stories, that I found too harrowing to photograph and moved on after getting too emotional.

After the museum, we experienced the local shops and it was good way to debrief after the memorial. I found some great stores including a boutique Country Cat and a New & Used multi-level bookstore that Caitlin and I could have gotten lost in for hours again, if we didn’t have a bus, train and ferry to catch to Miyajima Island.

Brekky at cafe next to A Bomb Dome: Okonomiyaki stick, nama chips and caramel cioccolata smoothie. Lunch: fast food of chicken fingers, fries and ice tea – that really lived up to its name inside me!
Dinner: excellent Miyajima restaurant with delicious food of Japanese beef ribs, tempura veggies, oysters, sake and bean paste puree.

We arrived at Miyajima Island and was kindly transported to the ryokan style Miyajima Hotel Makato. We dressed in traditional Japanese clothes called, Yukata and set off in search of the floating tore gate. Then had dinner at a delicious restaurant.

Tomorrow we explore more of this tranquil Island. Oyasumi!

Steps: 19,998