Japan Guide
Western Honshū
The Peace Memorial Park
The most appropriate place to start exploring Hiroshima is beside the twisted shell of the Industrial Promotion Hall, built in 1914 and now better known as the A-bomb Dome, or Gembaku Dōmu. Almost at the hypocentre of the blast, the hall was one of the few structures in the surrounding 3km that remained standing. It's been maintained ever since in its distressed state as a historical witness of Hiroshima's suffering and packs a powerful punch as you emerge from the modern-day hustle and bustle of the Hondōri arcade.
On the opposite bank of the Motoyasu-gawa is the verdant Peace Memorial Park, or Heiwa Kinen-kōen, dotted with dozens of statues and monuments to the A-bomb victims. One of the most touching is the Children's Peace Monument, a statue of a young girl standing atop an elongated dome and holding aloft a giant origami crane – the symbol of health and longevity. The monument's base is eternally festooned in multicoloured garlands of origami cranes, folded by schoolchildren from all over Japan and many other countries, a tradition that started with radiation victim Sasaki Sadako who fell ill with leukaemia in 1955.
The main monument – a smooth concrete and granite arch aligned with the A-bomb Dome and the Peace Memorial Museum – is the Memorial Cenotaph, designed by architect Kenzō Tange in the style of protective objects found in ancient Japanese burial mounds. Underneath the arch lies a stone coffin holding the names of all the direct and indirect A-bomb victims, and beside it burns the Flame of Peace, which will be put out once the last nuclear weapon on earth has been destroyed. It is before this monument that a memorial service is held every August 6, when white doves are released.
One final monument to take note of before proceeding to the museum is the Monument in Memory of the Korean Victims of the Bomb, on the eastern bank of the Hon-kawa, inside the Peace Park, just north of the Hon-kawa-bashi. Some two thousand forced labourers from Korea, a Japanese colony at the time of the war, died anonymously in the A-bomb blast, but it took decades before this monolith, mounted on the back of a turtle, was erected in their memory.