Hiroshima (広島)

Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum （広島平和記念資料館・平和記念公園）
(by Hanako Shinohara)

Needless to say, Hiroshima is famous as the first city in the world to be exposed to radiation in 1945. Still now, many people visit the city from all over the world to know what happened at the day and today’s issues of nuclear bombs and radiation. Usually, Japanese write Hiroshima in Katakana, like this ヒロシマ. Hiroshima in Katakana also means what happened in Hiroshima is not issue only for Hiroshima and Japanese citizens but also for all people in the world.

The Hiroshima Peace Memorial museum was opened in 1955. Visitors can know about Hiroshima before and after the atomic bomb at August 6, 1945 at the permanent exhibition. It also exhibits real remains of A-bomb victims and pictures drawn by survivors who are called hibakusha 被爆者.  Every year, some people donate remains of their family members or relatives who died because of A-bomb for Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum. It had been over 60 years, still now many people suffer from influence of radiation gotten from the atomic bomb. In addition, these days, a new issue is raised that is how to pass the experience and stories of Hiroshima without witnesses to the next generation because many of survivors are getting very old or passed away. Solving the issue, the museum would play a more important role.

The main building of the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum

There are many memorial monuments for A-bomb victims in the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park広島平和記念公園. The most famous one is Genbaku Domu原爆ドーム, the Atomic Bomb Memorial Dome. It stands quite near from the center of an explosion of the atomic bomb. When the fire by explosion ended, Hiroshima had been reduced to ruins that extended as far as the eye could see except Genbaku Dome and other few buildings. The dome is a designated World Heritage site in 1996 as the symbol of the oath to desire the total abolition of nuclear weapons and eternal world peace.

The Atomic Bomb Dome（原爆ドーム）

Every year, on August 6, Hiroshima city holds the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Ceremony 広島平和記念式典 at the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park. People pay one minute’s silent tribute to A-bomb dead at 8:15 a.m.

Heiwa-Ohashi/ Peace Bridge

This bridge, called Heiwa-Ohashi/ Peace Bridge（平和大橋）, is located over the river next to the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park and designed by Isamu Noguchi (Japanese-American sculptor, 1904-88) in 1952. There is another bridge over another river next to the Park, which is called Nishi-Heiwa-Ohashi/ West Peace Bridge（西平和大橋） and also designed by Noguchi.