Peace Memorial Park, Hiroshima

Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park (広島平和記念公園) is a large park in the center of Hiroshima. It is dedicated to the legacy of Hiroshima as the first city in the world to suffer a nuclear attack (August 6, 1945), which led to the death of as many as 140,000 people by the end of 1945.

There are a variety of monuments and buildings in the park, each dedicated to a different aspect of the bombing.

The location of Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park was once the city’s busiest downtown commercial and residential district. The park was built on open field that was created by the explosion. Today there are a number of memorials and monuments, museums, and lecture halls which draw over a million visitors annually. The annual 6 August Peace Memorial Ceremony, which is sponsored by the city of Hiroshima, is, also, held in the park. The purpose of the Peach Memorial Park and the city Hiroshima not only memorialized atomic victims, but also established the meaning of a memory of nuclear horrors and a world peace.

The A-Bomb Dome is the skeletal ruins of the former Industrial Promotion Hall. It is the building closest to the hypocenter of the nuclear bomb that remained at least partially standing. It was left how it was after the bombing in memory of the casualties. The A-Bomb Dome, which a sense of sacredness and transcendence has been attributed, is situated in a distant ceremonial view that is visible from the Peace Memorial Park’s central cenotaph. It is an officially designated site of memory for the nation’s and humanity’s collectively shared heritage of catastrophe.

Children's Peace Monument is a monyment for peace to commemorate Sadako Sasaki and the thousands of child victims of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, and is located in Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park. The monument was built using monies derived from a fund-raising campaign by Jaanese school children including Sadako's classmates, with the main statue entitled A-bomb Children; the statue was unveiled on the 5th of May, Children's Day in Japan. Sadako is immortalized at the top of the statue, where she holds a crane. Thousands or origami cranes from all over the world are offered around the monument on a daily basis, with ancient Japanse tradition holding that one who folds a thousand cranes can have one wish granted. They serve as a sign that the children who make them and those who visit the statue desire a world without nuclear war, having been tied to the statue by the fact that Sadako died from radion-induced leukemia after folding over a thousand cranes, wishing for world peace. Beneath the main structure lies a bronze crane that works as a wind chime when pushed against a traditional peace bell from which it is suspended, the two pieces having been donated by Nobel Laureate in Physics Hideki Yukawa.

The Atomic Bomb Memorial Mound is a large, grass-covered knoll that contains the ashes of 70,000 unidentified victims of the bomb.

Cenotaph for Korean Victims. Tens of thousands of Koreans are said to have been present in Hiroshima when the attack happened. The monument reads: "Souls of the dead ride to heaven on the backs of turtles." Although Japanese government provided the Korean memorial, its location had been a problem because the memorial stands outside the administrative boundaries of the Peace Park. According to the records, among the 350,000 to 400,000 people who were attacked by the atom bomb or exposed to lethal post-explosion radiation, at least 45,000 were Korean. Approximately 300,000 survivors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki returned to Korea after liberation with other former colonial subjects. However, only half of survivors are known to live in the Republic of Korea. Many records have vagueness of the Korean dead in their estimates from 5,000 to 50,000 because the racially and ethnically minoritized population has been neglected. The memorial plays an important role as a space of discursive intervention for Japan’s former colonial subjects. The memorial, beautified as it is with Korean national symbols, signifies the victories of Koreans who survived Japanese colonialism, the war, and even the atomic bomb. The Korean memorial concurrently serves as a nationalist icon, embodying the pride and glory of the Republic of Korea.

Memorial Cenotaph. Near the center of the park is a concrete, saddle-shaped monument that covers a Cenotaph holding the names of all of the people killed by the bomb. The Cenotaph carries the epitaph, "Repose ye in Peace, for the error shall not be repeated." Through the monument you can see the Peace Flame and the A-Bomb Dome. Memorial Cenotaph was one of the first memorial monuments built on open field on August 6, 1952. It is built in Shinto style. The arch shape represents a shelter for the souls of the victims.

The Peace Flame is another monument to the victims of the bomb that destroyed Hiroshima, but it has an additional symbolic purpose. The flame has burned continously since it was lit in 1964, and will remain lit until all nuclear bombs on the planet are destroyed and the planet is free from the threat of nuclear annihilation.

The Peace Bell stands near the memorial to the A-Bomb Children and consists of a large Japanese bell hanging inside a small open-sided structure. Visitors are encouraged to ring the bell for world peace and the loud and melodious tolling of this bell rings out regularly throughout the Peace Park. The inscriptions on the bell are in Greek, Japanese and Sanskrit. It is translated as "Know yourself." The Greek embassy donated the bell to the Peace Park, and pick out the most appropriate ancient Greek philosophical quote of Socrates.

The Hiroshima National Peace Memorial Hall is an effort by the Japanese national government to remember and mourn the sacred sacrifice of the atomic bomb victims. It is also an expression of Japan's desire for genuine and lasting peace. The Hall contains a number of displays. On the roof, near the entrance (the museum is underground) is a clock frozen at 8:15, the time the bomb went off. The museum contains a seminar room, library, temporary exhibition area, and victims' information area. Additionally, one of the more stunning areas is The Hall of Remembrance which contains a a 360 degree panorama of the destroyed Hiroshima recreated using 140,000 tiles - the number of people estimated to have died from the bomb by the end of 1945.

The Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum is the primary museum in the park dedicated to educating visitors about the bomb. The Museum has exhibits and information covering the build up to war, the role of Hiroshima in the war up to the bombing, and extensive information on the bombing and its effects, along with substantial memorabilia and pictures from the bombing. The building also offers some marvelous views of the Memorial Cenotaph, Peace Flame, and A-Bomb Dome.