Day 5:
June 5, 2004
Hiroshima
Sarah and Mark headed to the Shin-Kobe
station to take the Shinkansen (bullet train) to the city of Hiroshima.
Hiroshima today is a modern, thriving city, but it is of course best known for
what took place there on August 6, 1945. At 8:15 AM that morning, an
American B-29 bomber called Enola Gay dropped an atomic bomb over the
city, flattening the city and killing over 60,000 people. We took a
streetcar from the train station to Hiroshima Peace Memorial
Park, built on the site of the blast center. There is a museum in the
park which presents a history of the events leading up to the bombing, and then
a description of the bomb's aftermath. We had been warned that the
museum's presentation had a certain "spin," portraying Japan as more or less an
innocent victim, but we didn't find that to be true - in fact, we thought it
was fairly even-handed. Bringing a swift end to the war was certainly a
good thing for all involved, but there can be no doubt that for the people of
Hiroshima, it was a hellish nightmare that continued long after the war was
over.
Peace Memorial Park
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The bullet train arriving at Shin-Kobe station
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The former Hiroshima Prefectural Industrial Promotion Hall,
now known as the "A-Bomb Dome"
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Cenotaph for the A-bomb Victims,
contains a registry of names of all victims
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Korean Victims Monument, in honor of
Koreans (mostly slaves) killed in the blast
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Atomic Bomb Memorial Mound,
containing the ashes of unidentified victims
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Children's Peace Monument
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Aioi Bridge, the original target of the bomb
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Miyajima
Our plan for the day called for a visit
to the island of Miyajima, known as "One of Japan's Three Most Beautiful
Sights." The island can be reached by ferry, but unfortunately by the
time we reached the ferry terminal (after a 30 minute train ride from
Hiroshima), it was too late to actually go visit. We really didn't want
to miss our bullet train back to Kobe! But it was a beautiful day, and
the island was spectacular, even from a distance.
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Miyajima island, including the famous
floating Torii gate
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Another view of Miyajima
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Korean Barbecue
Dinner tonight was at a Korean barbecue
near the apartment in Kobe. You place your order, the servers bring you
the food raw, and you cook it yourself in a small barbecue pit in the
center of the table. We got the chance to sample Kimchi, Bibim bap, and
other traditional Korean dishes.
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Becca, Mary Beth, and Sophie cooking dinner
at a Korean barbecue
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