Japan 2000: Hiroshima - The first atomic bomb explosion…

"Once you've accepted your flaws no one can use them against you..."

Hiroshima, Japan

(13 - 15 September 2000)

The participants of ODA Loan Seminar took the bullet train, the Nozomi shinakansen to travel from Tokyo to Hiroshima. The Nozomi shinkansen is the fastest type of bullet train and takes 4 hours to travel direct. We stayed in Hiroshima for two days and visited some of the attractions.

Hiroshima city is in western Honshu, the largest of Japan's four main islands. Hiroshima means "wide island" literally and refers probably to the expansive delta on which it is built. It is in fact made of many islands, and none of them actually very wide - all long thin affairs. The city was founded back in the late 1500s by a Mori Terumoto, as a castle town to control trade and promote good order. A visit to the castle provides a great insight into the city's growth and construction.

(Ferry ride to Miyajima Island)

Hiroshima is a very pleasant place. The flipside of the destruction wrought upon it at the end of the war has been the freedom it has offered town planning since. Leafy parks and boulevards abound, and the city is broken up by seven rivers which carry breezes down from the surrounding hills to the island packed inland sea. This helps keep it cooler than other Japanese cities, even at the height of broiling summer. There are a few trips available on the rivers.

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(Miyajima, a temple island)

'Hiroshima is easy to get to, about an hour and a half on a faster Shinkansen from Osaka., and perfect for people on route to or from Kyushu. Many people come here even if it is not strictly on their circuit though, mostly to see the Peace Park and Peace Museum, and to see for themselves the legacy of the atomic bomb. The bomb was dropped on August 6, 1945 and exploded about 500m above the city centre at 8:15 in the morning. The Peace Park is now built on top of an old entertainment district that was obliterated in the blast, being only a few hundred metres from the hypocentre.

(Tame deers roaming the streets)

Though many of the memorials in the park and the museum itself are ugly concrete structures, the sheer force of history is such that few can come here and fail to be moved. Downstairs in the museum and free is a small gallery of artwork by survivors of the bomb, with descriptions of what they saw, where they were and so forth. This is an incredibly moving exhibit that deserves a lot more time the main museum itself.

(The Peace Dome at Hiroshima Ground Zero)

When we were in Hiroshima, we went for a day-tour to Miyajima island, home to more than a thousand Sika deer. According to local folklore, the deer in Miyajima were considered sacred messengers from the gods. Until 1637, killing one was punishable by death. They're still protected by Japanese law today, but not quite that harshly.

In most places, deer are difficult to approach, running away when you get close to them. But Miyajima deers are different. You can easily pet them or feed them.

👈 2000: Madinah, Saudi Arabia

2000: Tokyo, Japan 👉