Hiroshima City or "City of Peace"
   Dear American friends and people still holding nuclear weapons, I sincerely recommend you to visit Peace Memorial Park, Hiroshima!!
   
   Hiroshima is said to have originated in 1589 during the Azuchi-Momoyama Period (安土室山時代) when Terumoto Mori (毛利 輝元) began to build a new castle at the mouth of Ota River (太田川) and called the area "Hiroshima" (広島).  During the Edo Period (江戸時代) Hiroshima became a big city through vigorous commerce.  In 1889, the municipal system was implemented, and Hiroshima developed into a modern city with a dual military and academic character.
   On August 6, 1945, however, the crushing blow of the U.S. atomic bombing took over 160,000 lives out of the 420,000 inhabitants in a moment (at the lowest estimate), and utterly destroyed most of the city.  (On August 9, 1945 the cruel U.S. atomic bombing took over more than 74,000 lives of 270,000 inhabitants of Nagasaki (長崎) immediately.)  Much more surviving victims have been suffering from the sequelae even now.  Those who managed to survive carried the suffering wrought by that bombing for the rest of their lives.  (For further information of the atomic bombings, go to the Nagasaki City page.)
  Amid the ashes, Hiroshima overcame unbearable grief and suffering to set about its reconstruction.  Amid high economic growth, the city developed by annexing surrounding towns and villages.  Finally Hiroshima became the tenth government ordinance designated city in 1980.  It has an area of 905.41sq km and the current population is 1,180,127 (July 1 2012).

IMAGE	IMAGE NO.	DATA
Hiroshima Station		Hiroshima Station (広島駅)
	hrs2002-001	(Friday 18 October) Shinkansen Entrance of Hiroshima Station (広島駅新幹線口), viewed from Bus Terminal
	hrs2002-029	(Sunday 20 October) Front of Hiroshima Station (広島駅)
"Rei-chan"		"Hiroshima-style Okonomiyaki" Restautant "Rei-chan" (お好み焼き 麗ちゃん), Asse 2F, Hiroshima Station
	hrs2002-002	(Friday 18 October) "Hiroshima-style Okonomiyaki" Restautant "Rei-chan" (お好み焼き 麗ちゃん), Asse 2F, Hiroshima Station.  "Okonomiyaki" is a thin, flat cake of unsweetened batter fried with bits of vegetables; a pancake.  The Hiroshima-style Okonomiyaki contains much more slices of cabbage and sliced Japanese onion "negi" on the Japanese mein "soba" or "udon" with the local sweet Okonomiyaki sauce "Otafuku" (オタフクソース).
	hrs2002-030	(Sunday 20 October) "Hiroshima-style Okonomiyaki" Restautant "Rei-chan" (広島風お好み焼き 麗ちゃん), Asse 2F, Hiroshima Station
	hrs2002-031	(Sunday 20 October) "Hiroshima-style Okonomiyaki" Restautant "Rei-chan," Asse 2F, Hiroshima Station
Shukkei-en Garden		Shukkei-en Garden (縮景園), Hiroshima
	hrs2002-003	(Saturday 19 October) Shukkei-en Garden (縮景園), Hiroshima.  This park was originally built by Nagaakira Asano (浅野 長晟) in the 5th year of Genna (元和6年) or AD 1620 as a villa for the Asano family: also called "Sen-tei" (泉邸).  It was designed by Soko Ueda (上田 宗箇), who was a karo (家老; the chief retainer) of the Asano clan and also known as a famous man of tea ceremony (茶人).  In the garden design, he tried to make the miniature of the landscape of Xi Hu, Zhejiang [Chekiang], China (中国 浙江省西湖), and thus it was named "Shukkei-en" (literally, "the garden of miniature of the landscape").  The successive lords of the Asano clan loved this garden very much.  The address is 2-11 Kaminobori-cho, Naka Ward, Hiroshima City (広島市中区上幟町2-11).
	hrs2002-004	(Saturday 19 October) Shukkei-en Garden, Hiroshima
	hrs2002-005	(Saturday 19 October) The old rice field, Shukkei-en Garden, Hiroshima
	hrs2002-006	(Saturday 19 October) The miraculous trees survived after the horrible U.S. Atomic Bomb attack on August 6, 1945.  Shukkei-en Garden, Hiroshima
	hrs2002-007	(Saturday 19 October) Me@Shukkei-en Garden, Hiroshima
	hrs2002-008	(Saturday 19 October) Entrance to Shukkei-en Garden, Hiroshima
Hiroshima-jo Castle		Hiroshima-jo Castle (広島城), Hiroshima
	hrs2002-009	(Saturday 19 October) Hiroshima-jo Castle (広島城) which was the site of Imperial Military Headquarters during World War II
Peace Memorial Park		Peace Memorial Park, Hiroshima (広島平和記念公園), Hiroshima
	hrs2002-010	(Saturday 19 October) A-bomb Dome (原爆ドーム), Peace Memorial Park, Hiroshima (広島平和記念公園)
	hrs2002-012	(Saturday 19 October) A-bomb Dome, Peace Memorial Park, Hiroshima
	hrs2002-013	(Saturday 19 October) A-bomb Dome, Peace Memorial Park, Hiroshima.  This explains:   The dome was the Hiroshima Prefectural Industrial Promotion Hall, completed in April of 1915 under the design and supervision of Czech architect Jan Letzel, capturing the fancy of the citizens of Hiroshima with its characteristic green dome.  The atomic bomb exploded at an altitude of 580 meters approximately 160 meters southeast of the Industrial Promotion Hall, instantly killing everyone inside the building which was seriously damaged and completely burned out.  In December 1996 this structure was added to the UNESCO World Heritage List as a reminder to the entire world of horrors of the atomic bomb and a symbol of global peace.
	hrs2002-015	(Saturday 19 October) A-bomb Dome, Peace Memorial Park, Hiroshima
	hrs2002-016	(Saturday 19 October) Me & A-bomb Dome, Peace Memorial Park, Hiroshima
	hrs2002-017	(Saturday 19 October) Bell of Peace (平和の鐘), Peace Memorial Park, Hiroshima with Shabbir F. Hussain of Sunrich Companies, India.
	hrs2002-018	(Saturday 19 October) Bell of Peace, Peace Memorial Park, Hiroshima
	hrs2002-019	(Saturday 19 October) Bell of Peace, Peace Memorial Park, Hiroshima & Shabbir F. Hussain of Sunrich Companies, India.
	hrs2002-020	(Saturday 19 October) Atomic Bomb Memorial Mound (原爆慰霊碑), Peace Memorial Park, Hiroshima
	hrs2002-021	(Saturday 19 October) "NO WAR!" flag dedicated by a local elementary school class.  Atomic Bomb Memorial Mound, Peace Memorial Park, Hiroshima
	hrs2002-022	(Saturday 19 October) Monument in Memory of the Korean Victims of the A-bomb (韓国人原爆犠牲者慰霊碑), Peace Memorial Park, Hiroshima.  At that time, about 50,000 Korean people lived in Hiroshima and 20,000 in Nagasaki; all of them were kidnapped and forced to work for the Japanese Empire.   As the result, about 40,000 Korean people were atom-bombed as "Japanese people."   But they had to face the severe discrimination and could not be well-treated by the Japanese doctors.  After World War II, many Korean survivors went back to their homeland without receiving enough medical aid from Japan.   The Japanese government has been refusing to apply "Atomic Bomb Victims Relief Law" (被爆者援護法; Hibakusha Engo-ho) to the foreign victims of the Atomic Bomb, although they have suffered as much as the Japanese victims have.
	hrs2002-023	(Saturday 19 October) Children's Peace Monument (原爆の子の像), Peace Memorial Park, Hiroshima.  In memory of Sadako Sasaki.  Sadako was two years old when the atomic bomb was dropped over Hiroshima on August 6, 1945.  As she grew up, Sadako was a strong, courageous and athletic girl.  In 1955, at the age of eleven, while practicing for a track-and -field event, she became dizzy and fell to the ground.  Sadako's disease was diagnosed as leukemia caused by the atomic bomb.   Sadako's best friend told her of an old Japanese tradition that anyone who folds a thousand paper cranes would be granted a wish.  Sadako hoped that God would grant her a wish to get well so that she could run again.  She started to work on the paper cranes and completed over 1000 (more than 1,200, as her mother told later) before her death at the age of twelve on October 25, 1955.   See Eleanor Coerr, Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes (Kyoto: Yamaguchi Shoten, 1984).
	hrs2002-024	(Saturday 19 October) Children's Peace Monument, Peace Memorial Park, Hiroshima.  The Japanese inscription says, "This is our cry, this is our prayer, for establishing world peace."
	hrs2002-025	(Saturday 19 October) The Rest House, which miraculously remains the same after the US Atomic Bomb attack.  Peace Memorial Park, Hiroshima
	hrs2002-026	(Saturday 19 October) Flame of Peace (平和の灯), Peace Memorial Park, Hiroshima
	hrs2002-027	(Saturday 19 October) Cenotaph for the A-bomb Victims (原爆慰霊碑), Memorial Monument for Hiroshima, City of Peace).  Peace Memorial Park, Hiroshima
	hrs2002-028	(Saturday 19 October) A watch stopped at 8:15 a.m. on August 6, 1945, the moment of the U.S. Atomic Bombing.  Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum
Hotel New Hiroden		Hotel New Hiroden (ホテル ニュー ヒロデン) near Hiroshima Station
	hrs2002-032	(Sunday 20 October) Hotel New Hiroden (ホテル ニュー ヒロデン), where I stayed for two nights.  A nice hotel with warm hospitality.

        

Copyright (c) 2002-2007 Eishiro Ito.  All rights reserved.