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| Upstream from the A-Bomb Dome, circa December 2011 |
Hiroshima is a town dear to my heart because it is my dear husband's hometown. He loves going back to spend time with his family and we visit as regularly as people who are living in a different country can. His father built their home, which is positioned very close to the centre of the city in their neighbourhood back in the seventies. The unexpected quietness and the convenient walkability of this area is a source of recurring delight for us every time we return.
Thankfully, my father-in-law is not quite a true local as he grew up in Yoshiura near Kure which is around fifteen kilometres from Hiroshima city proper. Kure was a naval centre and the home base of the largest battleship ever constructed, the Yamato (see link for background, specs and photos). It also became home temporarily from 1946 to thousands of British, Indian, New Zealand, and Australian soldiers who were stationed here as members of the British Commonwealth Occupation Force (BCOF), and he and his older brother remember seeing them around the town and trying to cadge candy from them when they were young. His mother witnessed the mushroom cloud from the relative safety of Yoshiura. My mother-in-law was also fortunate as she grew up on the neighbouring island of Shikoku, even farther away from the bomb site.
One of the notable aspects of the current family home's location is that it is within walking distance of the Heiwa Kinen Koen (Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park). It appears that ground zero was initially to become a city park and it was only later in 1949 that the land was declared to be for the purpose of establishing a peace memorial park. Roughly twenty six acres around Nakajima, which had been previously occupied by an estimated six thousand five hundred people prior to the blast, were marked out for this end in 1951.
This park now houses a range of memorials, amongst these are monuments to remember the children, medical staff, teachers, Korean workers, as well as many others who lost their lives on August 6th, 1945 (see this link and click on the tab second from the top on the right called "Guided tours to Peace Memorial Park and vicinity" for a more complete list), but foremost is the Heiwa Kinen Shiryokan (Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum) which is visited by virtually all tourists who spend any time in the city, (including members of my own family). Incidentally, the locals simply call the museum the Genbaku Shiryokan (Genbaku means bomb) and the park is Heiwa Koen (Peace Park). None of those previously mentioned highfalutin formal names for them, thank you very much!
To give you an idea of the layout of the park and the distances involved I have included the Google Map to the right. The family residence is close to Higashisenda park which marked by a gold star at the very bottom of the map.
Thankfully, my father-in-law is not quite a true local as he grew up in Yoshiura near Kure which is around fifteen kilometres from Hiroshima city proper. Kure was a naval centre and the home base of the largest battleship ever constructed, the Yamato (see link for background, specs and photos). It also became home temporarily from 1946 to thousands of British, Indian, New Zealand, and Australian soldiers who were stationed here as members of the British Commonwealth Occupation Force (BCOF), and he and his older brother remember seeing them around the town and trying to cadge candy from them when they were young. His mother witnessed the mushroom cloud from the relative safety of Yoshiura. My mother-in-law was also fortunate as she grew up on the neighbouring island of Shikoku, even farther away from the bomb site.
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| Peace Museum park-side, circa December 2010 |
This park now houses a range of memorials, amongst these are monuments to remember the children, medical staff, teachers, Korean workers, as well as many others who lost their lives on August 6th, 1945 (see this link and click on the tab second from the top on the right called "Guided tours to Peace Memorial Park and vicinity" for a more complete list), but foremost is the Heiwa Kinen Shiryokan (Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum) which is visited by virtually all tourists who spend any time in the city, (including members of my own family). Incidentally, the locals simply call the museum the Genbaku Shiryokan (Genbaku means bomb) and the park is Heiwa Koen (Peace Park). None of those previously mentioned highfalutin formal names for them, thank you very much!
To give you an idea of the layout of the park and the distances involved I have included the Google Map to the right. The family residence is close to Higashisenda park which marked by a gold star at the very bottom of the map.
I realised while I was assembling some photographs to illustrate this blog post that I had never really looked closely at the museum building. Perhaps I did the first time I set eyes upon in 1994 but I do not recall that it made much of an impression on me at the time. That was the trip when I took my parents to visit Hiroshima and I also met Saburo's parents for the first time. I must have had other things on my mind back then as I do not even remember that our joint families had lunch together at this beautiful garden restaurant called Hanbe (see link) where we even saw a bride decked out in a traditional white kimono.
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| The Peace Museum, taken from the Peace Boulevard-side (Heiwa-Odori), circa December 2011 |
A little Internet research uncovered the fact that a design competition for the memorial museum had been held in 1949 and the winner was Kenzo Tange. I was surprised to discover that the building had been completed as long ago as 1955. I had assumed it was a much later addition to the park because of its modern lines. Photographs of make-shift baraku accomodation (from the English word for barracks) can be viewed on this website (see link). These images reveal how life continued for a number of years in the Nakajima neighbourhood after the explosion until the residents were forcibly removed and the dwellings were demolished for the construction of the museum to commence. Unsurprisingly, the museum was opposed by some quarters who felt the money should be diverted to help the victims. The Engineer tells me that many baraku remained in use in the vicinity of Motomachi for a long time afterward (the area to the top right of where the map ends).
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| Taken from the "T"-shaped Aioi Bridge, circa May 2015 |
His comments about peace which were published in a magazine interview in October 1949 provide some insight into his vision for his design. He stated, "Peace is not what Mother Nature or Divinity bestows upon you but you practice and create it. Hiroshima peace facility is not only for commemorating restored peace but for creating peace in a constructive way. We thought the facility we were about to work on had to be a factory where peace shall be created" (see link).
We could see this "factory" in motion this year when we visited the museum in May. It just so happened that our timing coincided with that of a million junior high school students who were there for their shugakouryokou (overnight school trip). 9th graders in Japan take a three-night four-day trip to a different part of Japan, such as Hiroshima or Kyoto, which has a particular historical or cultural significance to the nation as part of their education. The parking bays of the museum were filled to capacity with colourful school buses obstructing the gateway view of the park.
Undeterred, we purchased our tickets. We were momentarily perplexed by how cheap they were at fifty yen only, but we pushed on and were soon being jostled by the throngs of students and tourists who were wending their way around the exhibition route. Although I lack the scientific understanding necessary to fully appreciate the complexities of nuclear reactions, I did appreciate the commendable job the museum does of demystifying this in the first section via excellent illustrated explanations given in both Japanese and English. What would also be valuable in my humble opinion would be to include some additional background regarding the events immediately prior to the bombing taking place to give the visitors a richer understanding of the complex circumstances involved.
It was actually the Engineer who had wanted to re-visit the museum this year. I have visited the museum several times over the years and it always takes some kokoro-jumbi (self-preparation) to gaze upon the ghastly images of the devastation wrought by one "Little Boy" (see link for more about the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima city). As well as that I struggle anew with the great human suffering that resulted because our countries went to war against each other so many years ago now.
This year being the seventieth anniversary of the Battle of Manila, I have attended a significant number of presentations on war battles and their aftereffects in the Philippines so I felt it only fair that I front up once more and look at the war from the Japanese perspective. However, I did not pause over the displays and I was moving along faster than my companion. I stopped after awhile and passed some time simply by sitting and observing the reactions on the faces of those around me as they absorbed the content of the displays.
I could see that most people were really drawn to the artifacts on display. The science attracted some of the students but not in the same way as the heart-breaking displays of the belongings that were used to identify those who did not survive and horrifying photographs of the survivors who did. We saw the bank steps with the "shadow" black mark of the person who was sitting there at 8:15 a.m. in the morning waiting for it to open (see link for a photograph), and I recognised many familiar landmarks while studying the other photographs on display.
As we left the Engineer was talking about the horse exhibit that was missing from the halls, and I noticed the sign informing the public that the East building would be closed for renovations until the spring of 2016; thus explaining the enigma of the absent horse and the discounted price of the entrance ticket. Even though the display was limited and perhaps the ongoing renovations will fill some of the other gaps in the future, all around us, both inside and outside of the building, there was evidence that within the "factory", the cogs were whirring actively.
It was actually the Engineer who had wanted to re-visit the museum this year. I have visited the museum several times over the years and it always takes some kokoro-jumbi (self-preparation) to gaze upon the ghastly images of the devastation wrought by one "Little Boy" (see link for more about the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima city). As well as that I struggle anew with the great human suffering that resulted because our countries went to war against each other so many years ago now.
This year being the seventieth anniversary of the Battle of Manila, I have attended a significant number of presentations on war battles and their aftereffects in the Philippines so I felt it only fair that I front up once more and look at the war from the Japanese perspective. However, I did not pause over the displays and I was moving along faster than my companion. I stopped after awhile and passed some time simply by sitting and observing the reactions on the faces of those around me as they absorbed the content of the displays.
I could see that most people were really drawn to the artifacts on display. The science attracted some of the students but not in the same way as the heart-breaking displays of the belongings that were used to identify those who did not survive and horrifying photographs of the survivors who did. We saw the bank steps with the "shadow" black mark of the person who was sitting there at 8:15 a.m. in the morning waiting for it to open (see link for a photograph), and I recognised many familiar landmarks while studying the other photographs on display.
As we left the Engineer was talking about the horse exhibit that was missing from the halls, and I noticed the sign informing the public that the East building would be closed for renovations until the spring of 2016; thus explaining the enigma of the absent horse and the discounted price of the entrance ticket. Even though the display was limited and perhaps the ongoing renovations will fill some of the other gaps in the future, all around us, both inside and outside of the building, there was evidence that within the "factory", the cogs were whirring actively.
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| Inside the museum there were students all of the place busily completing their assigned question sheets, and tourists in the background signing a petition against nuclear weapons, circa May 2015. |
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| Students paying their respects in front of the Cenotaph, circa May 2015 |
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| So many students in fact that they were overflowing from the park and (nearly) spilling into the river, circa May 2015 |
Australian international policy maker and former politician, Gareth Evans (see link for his biography), recounts how his experience of encountering the "shadow" on the bank step in situ while on his first ever trip abroad led him to pledge to do his utmost to remove nuclear weapons from the world (see link). As I watched the young minds of the students digest the information shown in the exhibits, I wondered what they were thinking. Were their minds busily making sense of their surroundings? What kind of peace would they construct in their hearts for Hiroshima, their nation, and the world? These are big questions, I know, but it is my heartfelt hope that I continue to witness the progress of the "factory's" works for many more years to come. May peace be with us all in the meantime.
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