Hiroshima
September 23, 2005
I wasn’t really sure how I would like this city. After all, my countrymen literally obliterated it in WWII and I wasn’t sure how the people here felt about Americans. The Japanese people we met were very nice and helpful. They are proud of their city and how they have rebuilt it. They seem to have a strong spirit and recognize that sharing their experience might keep the world a little safer.
Shukkeien Gardens
A beautiful garden laid out in 1620 uses ponds, bridges and small islets to make it look like Xihu Lake in Hangzhou China. This is a circular tour garden where you basically walk around the garden in a circular path.
Peace Memorial Park
A very reverent park with no laughing or playing going on. The park is made up of several areas and museums. The peace memorial museum has artifacts and pictures of Hiroshima before and after the Atomic Blast. Seeing this first hand was both amazing and scary at the same time. The A-bomb dome is a ghostly structure and one of the few structures to survive the blast, whose epicenter was just across the river. The statue of the A-bomb children has a great story behind it. A girl named Sadako Sasaki died of radiation sickness in 1955. Before her death she began to fold 1000 paper cranes. In Japanese culture it is believed that cranes are a symbol of life and longevity. She only finished 644 cranes, but her classmates finished the other 356. Now hang tens of thousands of paper cranes from children all over the world. Ring the bell while you are there for peace in the world. As we left the Park two children handed us paper cranes. I’ll never forget that and they are in my scrapbook forever.
A beautiful garden laid out in 1620 uses ponds, bridges and small islets to make it look like Xihu Lake in Hangzhou China. This is a circular tour garden where you basically walk around the garden in a circular path.
Peace Memorial Park
A very reverent park with no laughing or playing going on. The park is made up of several areas and museums. The peace memorial museum has artifacts and pictures of Hiroshima before and after the Atomic Blast. Seeing this first hand was both amazing and scary at the same time. The A-bomb dome is a ghostly structure and one of the few structures to survive the blast, whose epicenter was just across the river. The statue of the A-bomb children has a great story behind it. A girl named Sadako Sasaki died of radiation sickness in 1955. Before her death she began to fold 1000 paper cranes. In Japanese culture it is believed that cranes are a symbol of life and longevity. She only finished 644 cranes, but her classmates finished the other 356. Now hang tens of thousands of paper cranes from children all over the world. Ring the bell while you are there for peace in the world. As we left the Park two children handed us paper cranes. I’ll never forget that and they are in my scrapbook forever.
