Genbaku Dome

I won’t forget the sight of it, lit up from the inside at night. Sad and eerie.

I just had no idea what it would be like.

I thought maybe the city would be a deserted ghost town no one wanted to live in. It’s a thriving busy city.

The memorial park in the middle of the city was just so amazing to see. Seeing the A-Bomb dome as it was on that day. Visiting the memorials around the park. Seeing the mound that was all the ashes left they could find to bury. I spent 4-5 hours in the museum. It was well done – not only a memorial to those that died, but also providing the historical context for the event. It also has the noble goal of preventing that from ever happening again. I tear up just thinking about that day.

As if all of that wasn’t enough, seeing all that, reading survivor accounts, seeing photos, thinking about what it was like….

I was standing in front of the memorial to the children that died, watching school groups of children come up and sing in front of the memorial. An old man came up to me and asked where I was from. Once I said the US, he told me that he was a survivor, his family had been vaporized, but he wanted me to know he didn’t hate Americans he hated WAR and wanted to prevent that from ever happening to anyone else.

When I started crying from the emotional overload of the day, he then apologized to me, which only made it worse.

I think everyone (who can afford to) needs to go to this park one day and just learn & think about what happened.

It’s completely different during the day and during the night. I recommend visiting both times, but if you have to choose, I think nighttime is better. Especially in warm weather when kids are playing music by the river.

In the middle of Hiroshima, the A-bomb dome stands as a stark reminder of the power of nuclear technology. The A-bomb dome was the former Industrial Promotion hall. It is one of only a few buildings, closest to the hypocenter of the nuclear bomb, that remained partially standing. Almost all buildings within a 2km radius were destroyed by the blast or by fire. The A-bomb dome has been preserved so that it is exactly as it was after the bomb was dropped. They plan to keep it that way as a reminder for future generations.

Surprisingly, the A-Bomb Dome is smack bang in the middle of the city next to the river. It’s pretty amazing to think that it’s almost exactly the same as when the bimb hit. There were only a few buildings that survived the blast, and this was the only one they kept.