Hiroshima
Since Tim and his girlfriend are lapping up the luxury in a Japanese resort town for the next few days, Rob and I made our way to Hiroshima to visit the Peace Memorial.
We managed to master subway system and bullet trains – well mostly. Being stuck in a smoking carriage for a couple hours isn’t all that pleasant.
Once we got off the bullet train we made our way on to the local trams to take us the Peace Memorial. First up was the A-bomb dome. The bomb exploded directly above this building. It wasn’t totally obliterated because most of the force goes outwards with the shockwaves rather than down.
The A-dome
Looking at the T-bridge that was the target of the bomb
Next was the museum. It is extremely well done and shows all sides of the story too. It’s also good that you see the rather gruesome aftermath including radiation burns of people. Quite disturbing but something we are glad to have done. It did feel a little weird being there surrounded by Japanese people – and us being among the few white people. One of the volunteer guides told us in English that “We don’t hate Americans because of this… we hate war”. Very poignant, but I told her we were Australian anyway just in case.
View of Peace Memorial Park - looking down towards the A-dome
Tomorrow is Himeji castle – the most famous castle in Japan.
Leeane