To mourn and to remember
From there, we head south of the park to where more monuments and the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum are located.
We stop at the Cenotaph for the A-bomb victims, also known as the Memorial Monument for Hiroshima,
City of Peace, as it was built in a bid to reconstruct post-war Hiroshima as a city dedicated to peace.
It consists of a stone chest beneath an arch representing the roof, inspired by the haniwa pottery used to decorate pre-historic tombs. Inside the chest is a record of the names of the victims.
As of Aug 6, 2015, there were 297,684 names on the list. It is inscribed with the phrase: “Let all the souls here rest in peace, for we shall not repeat the evil.”
As for the survivors, in 2002, the government had dedicated a hall — the Hiroshima National Peace Memorial Hall for the Atomic Bomb Victims (now International Conference Center Hiroshima) — as a venue to mourn them. It houses tens of thousands of written and video testimonies by survivors and photographs of those killed in the tragedy.
Our tour ended at the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum. We only visited the East Building as the main building of the museum is under renovation and is closed to visitors. The museum opened on Aug 24, 1955.
Museum director Kenji Shiga says, “it is built to convey to the world the actual facts of the atomic bombing, to contribute to the abolition of nuclear weapons and the realisation of lasting world peace.”
The museum houses a collection of 20,000 A-bomb artefacts, 5,000 drawings by survivors and 70,000 photographs. It displays belongings left by the victims, photos and other materials that convey the horror of the tragedy, supplemented by exhibits that describe Hiroshima before and after the bombings and others that present the current status of the nuclear age. Each of the items displayed embodies the grief, anger, or pain of real people.
In 1994, the museum was renovated to facilitate education and divided into two sections. The East Wing — the newest addition — explains the history of Hiroshima City before the bomb, development and the decision to drop the bomb, the lives of Hiroshima citizens during World War II and after the bombing, and ends with information on the nuclear age and efforts for international peace. Included in this section is a model showing the damage done to the city.
The West Wing, which was part of the old museum, highlights the damage of the bomb. Sections include a section which displays clothing, watches, hair, and other personal effects worn by the victims. Other sections document what happened to wood, stone, metal, glass and flesh due to the heat as well as radiation effects on the survivors.
Besides these memorials and monuments, there are 50 smaller memorials in and around the parks built by schools, workers’ organisations and groups.
ORIZURU AND SUNSET
Dusk has already fallen when we conclude the tour. Teddy hastily ushers us to the Hiroshima Orizuru Tower, located to the east of the Atomic Bomb Dome and next to the peace memorial park.
He wants us to experience and enjoy the sights of the city as the sun sets. The commercial complex was originally the Mazda Building that was refurbished and rebranded as the Hiroshima Orizuru Tower. It has two underground levels and 14 above-ground floors.
The tower’s main attraction is the Hiroshima Hills — a wooden observation deck on the rooftop — designed by Hiroshima-based architect Hiroshi Sambuichi and opened on July 11 last year.
From here, we not only get a panoramic view of the A-bomb Dome and the Peace Memorial Park but also the cityscape beyond and Miyajima Island in the distance.
There’s a cafe on this floor if you want to get a drink while enjoying the view on the deck.
Once it’s dark, we take the spiral down two floors to Orizuru Square, where each of us will make an origami crane that we learn from a video.
Then, in groups of three, we enter a room which is part of the Orizuru Wall, make a wish for peace and long life, and toss our orizuru down the wall. Thus far, more than 200,000 orizuru have filled the wall.
HIROSHIMA’S SOUL FOOD
For our first evening meal in the city, we sample Hiroshima people’s favourite food — okonomiyaki.
It is a savoury pancake topped with a variety of ingrederived dients. The dish its name from the word
“okonomi” which means
“how you like” or “what you like”, and “yaki” which means “grill”.
Okonomiyaki is mainly associated with the Kansai and
Hiroshima prefectures but is available throughout Japan. Toppings and batters differ according to regions.
Teddy then takes us to Okonomimura, where we head for the second floor to the famed Shinchan restaurant that has been in business for almost 50 years.
Wearehavinghiroshimayaki or hiroshima-okonomi, in which the ingredients are layered — batter, shredded cabbage, beansprouts, meat slices or seafood. Noodles (yakisuba or udon) and fried egg are also used as toppings and