Wednesday, June 04, 2014

Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park

So calm and serene. Sunny and Green.
It was the same description given by the atomic bombs survivors moments before "Little Boy" was dropped. The US called it little boy but the impact and aftermath was so devastated it ended World War II. 


69 years later, and here I stood...with the same calmness and greenness. Clear water ran from the mountain to the sea. No one thought that trees would grow again on this land for many many years after the atomic bombings in 1945.

No visitors to Hiroshima will miss this Peace Memorial Park occupying a vast 122,100 square metre of space in the centre of Hiroshima. Hence we thought of dropping by here to learn, study and reflect upon this event.


Since we were staying in Miyajima Island instead of on the mainland Hiroshima, we took a speed boat to get here. Japanese Tourism really did fantastic job by providing every possible route/information/accessibility/promotion to any tourists in the world to visit every nooks and corners of Japan.

The speed boat leaves at Pier number 3 in Miyajima Island, which was a short distance from our Cottage Ryokan. The 45 minutes journey was so splendid because the person who operate the speedboat was so sweet and thoughtful. Though all tourists are local, he realised we weren't and made sure he did explanation in English and showed us the Pier that made Boeing 777 in Hiroshima.

and he had to add the one that made MH370 as well...
Oh why thank you for reminding but I am sure he meant it in a good way since we were from Malaysia.

The speedboat has got a television with lots of promo videos on Miyajima Island and Hiroshima, but it's in Japanese. Soon all on board had their eyes glued into the TV except the two of us...bz lookin out at the sea because there's so many Oysters Farm!!!!

It's really convenient way to get around because the speed boat brought us directly to the Peace Memorial Park. No transfers needed, really door to door. Excellent!! Well done Japan Tourism.
JS sat there like a lil boy, in his short pants thinking hard. Don't know what was on his mind, because at moments and places like this, I don't implore. Especially when mine was busy seeking answers, but all my questions were clouded with no answers but with more questions.

So moral of the story is, wat's done being done. The scars are there...humans learnt from it and we move on. 


The famous A-Bomb Dome
It was the very few concrete remains from the bombing.

Before and after.
Later we were at the museum with photographs and maps charting the before and after looks of Hiroshima. I guess the most painful parts were looking at photos of survivors, body burnt, melted to beyond recognition....trying to walk in that state.

They didn't survive long and died soon...some within a few hours...a few days...a few weeks....Even those who survived, died from cancer, leukaemia and other complications years after the war.

Even concrete slabs and stairs wasn't spared. They were marred by the ugliness of the war. When the bomb exploded, shards of glass were sent on high impact and penetrated into the concrete walls. How could that happened? Concrete are so strong and yet they were penetrable. One could never imagine the strength of "Little Boy"


The Peace Bell
The map of the world is on the surface of the bell.


Ring the bell for its deep melodious toil.
The bell was donated by the Greek Embassy with the famous inscriptions by Socrates - Know Yourself.



Further down the park is the Children's Peace Monument with thousands and thousands of colorful paper origami. Donated by children all around the world. They even designed artwork from these folded paper cranes like painting - mostly depicting world peace.

At the top of this monument is a statue of Sasaki Sadako, the girl whom popularised paper cranes. She was exposed to the atomic bomb at the age of 2....then suffered through her lifetime with leukaemia. Sadako believed that if she managed to fold 1,000 paper cranes, she will recover from her illness. She only managed to fold 644 paper cranes before she's too weak to do anymore and soon died at the age of 12. Ten years after the Atomic Bombing. Fellow classmates felt so sorry and completed her paper cranes to make it to a thousand, to signify a thousand years - longevity.

haiiii it's so sad :((((


the Cenotaph which holds the list of victims' names.
The words carries a very deep meaning - Rest in Peace, for the error shall not be repeated.

True enough from that day onwards, atomic bombs were not used in wars
I do hope this will last and continue on. Also the Japanese Government has been writing to countries who's been using nuclear bombs on their concerns and efforts to discontinue it.

Copies of the letters were displayed at the museum....so many letters and to date there's been six hundreds over letters to His Excellency Barrack Obama...


beautiful pic composed by JS
We spent some hours basking under the sun, discussing world issues. Yeah don't ask me why, we lurve to have "brain-cells killer" topics. As the sun shone, our debates got hotter too and it's time to get some fresh juice from the cart, down the road. :)))))))))

School outings :)))))))
JS refers japanese school kids with hats as Chibi Maruko. I lurve Chibi Maruko-chan :))))

School outings are a huge thing in Japan, they even have their own photographer whom documents their outings. Most of the time, the students mistook JS as their photographer and smiled and waved at him. Soon the REAL McCOY photographer came over and look at JS

KAKAKAKAKA....
yea u dun steal ppl's rice bowl with ur Leica ok?

Then we took the scheduled speed boat back to Miyajima Island
For Humanity to survive we must learn from our mistakes


and 45 minutes later, we landed safely back in Miyajima Island. I know, usually tourists will stay at Mainland and come to Miyajima for daytrip but we thought it's more beautiful to stay in this island with all the wild deers and beautiful mountain, sea...to be able to roam in the island especially off peak hours like in the early morning and at nite is sure beautiful and zen.

Little Boy was dropped onto Hiroshima, precisely at 8.15am on 6th August 1945.......3 days later...Fat Man (I am not kidding u) was dropped at Nagasaki 11.02am....9th of August.

Read about my posting on Peace Memorial Park in Nagasaki...another sad sad place.
http://cher-ry.blogspot.com/2014/02/peace-park-and-hypocenter-nagasaki.html

1 comment:

  1. I like the place, it's very beautiful
    thank you for the meaning, very helpful
    Next

    ReplyDelete