WARNING – this post has little to no puns in it.
After leaving Uno (Naoshima), we boarded a (very crowded) train bound for Hiroshima.
After checking into our hostel, where we have only stayed for one night, we hopped on some bikes and headed for the main focus of the city – the Peace Memorial Park. I was struck by how cosmopolitan Hiroshima is – I guess I never really thought of it as a ‘present’ city because of its history and it is almost stuck in the past in my mind. But it’s a lovely city – tramlines running through the centre and a very busy train station at the opposite end. After about 15 minutes of cycling, we knew we had found our destination as the A-bomb dome loomed out over the road. Now, please stay with me whilst I reel off the history of this place- it may bore some of you, but I think it’s so important to understand exactly what happened on that day, which I never understood before.
The dome was situated beneath the site where the atomic bomb exploded at 8.15am on August 6th 1945. The bomb exploded before hitting the ground, directly above a nearby hospital, and because it was almost directly underneath the explosion, the dome remained relatively intact as it was able to resist the verticle force of the explosion above. It was actually the Hiroshima Prefectural Promotional Industrial Hall at the time, in a busy and thriving neighbourhood. Although the building itself survived somewhat, it was 160metres from the hypocentre of the blast and so everybody inside died instantly (as did those in the hospital).
Rather than demolish the buidling once the city had recovered, it was left to remind people of what had been, and the area around it is now the Peace Memorial Park which is filled with other memorials.
We then made our way to the Children’s Peace Memorial which was set up in response to the death of Sadako Sasaki – an 11 year old girl who died as a result of radiation poisoning. Sadako actually recovered immediately after the explosion, but 10 years later was diagnosed with leukeamia. Whilst she was in hospital, it became her mission to fold 1000 paper cranes (as tradition says that you will be granted a wish if you do so). Sadako died, but her classmates continued to fold paper cranes for her and also raised money for the monument which features Sadako with one of her cranes at the top.
The statue is inscribed “This is our cry, this is our prayer: for building peace in the world”
It is also surrounded by displays completely made from origami paper cranes. One of which features our mate Obama (more of him later).
This was the beginning of the realisation that rather than building hatred in response to what happened to this city, the Japanese people only wish for future peace and for something positive to come out of it.
As we walked through the park, this sentiment became evermore clear. Other memorials included the Peace Flame (which will continue to burn as long as there are atomic weapons in the world) and the cenotaph, which frames the A-bomb dome and flame. During the explosion, hundreds of school students were also on the streets, creating ‘fire breaks’ in case of air raids. They had been mobilized during the war to help stop the spread of fires. Many of them died and there is a memorial covered in cranes for them too.
We paid a visit to the Hall of Remembrance. This is a circular building which you enter and walk down a ramp in an anti-clockwise direction, so that you ‘go back to that time’. In the centre is a circular room covered in small square tiles which build up a panorama of the city after the bombing . Each tile represents a person who died. There are 140,000 of them. On leaving the room, you are then faced with a large screen of black and white photos of people and their names, which continually change one by one. Needless to say, it was incredibly moving and hard to take in what this all meant. Hiroshima has done a sterling job in remembering what happened.
Finally, we took a visit to the Hiroshima Peace Museum. It was absolutely rammed and we had to make our way through very slowly as the crowds of people inched forward. The museum was populated with exhibits recovered after the explosion, including burned clothes and personal items, all of which belonged to a named victim. Possibly the most harrowing item was the skin and nails of a young boy who had managed to return home to his mother after being badly burned, but died the next day. His mother kept these to show his father on his return from war. The museum showed it how it was. No holding back. Towards the end I was totally overwhelmed.
A model of the city after the bomb hit. The red ball shows the site of the explosion.
Where to go from here? On leaving, there was a small display of Barrack Obama’s visit here not long ago. I can definitely say that the Japanses people love Obama. His words brought hope that one day there could be peace. But it also left me feeling slightly in despair as to what might be, later in the year. He left a message of peace and even folded some cranes himself to go on it. These were in a display case which many people were taking photos of (taking photos of photos!).
After what felt like an incredibly intense, emotional day, we had a break and then headed out to search for food. After calculating that we had been using a very optimistic conversion rate for our budget, we realised we had been spending (only a little) more than we had thought. To make us feel better, we headed out for (cheap) okomiyaki. We have had okomiyaki before (see Kyoto), but in Hiroshima they do it differently! We found a 2 story building which was crammed with stalls dedicated to the pancake of the gods and after spotting one which was showing some olympics on the TV (we still haven’t managed to watch any!), we sat ourselves at the hot plate.
As you can see, the proprieter stands in the middle and cooks your food right in front of you. Hottest job on earth? Possibly! We ordered our okonomiyaki and the chef suggested we have half udon and half soba noodle in each. First he cooked 2 very thin pancakes for each dish and then topped one with shredded cabbage, bean sprouts, bacon and some weird mossy stuff that we’re not sure what it was. He then flipped this over to cook the vegetables and meat.
Then he put some cooked noodle on the hot plate to crisp up a bit. Other unidentifiable but delicious-looking fillings were added including the noodles, and finally the second pancake was added to the top before he squished it all down to cook together.
After adding okonomiyaki sauce, seaweed and other bits to the top, and frying an egg, which the pancakes were then cooked on top of for good measure, we were presented with a culinary masterpiece, which tasted GREAT.
Like a savoury, noodly Eton mess. The difference with Hiroshima okonomiyaki compared to traditional ones? The pancakes are cooked seperately and then filled with your choice of stuff, whereas in traditional ones, the fillings are mixed in with the uncooked batter before frying to make a big old pancake.
Rice ball count: 1
Historycatz 