Emergency Vacation Pt. 3 - Hiroshima

We returned to Japan about two and a half weeks after the earthquake, and were surprised to see that spring was slowly springing. The early blooms and sunshine made visiting Hiroshima more pleasant; it's actually a very nice and modern city. Hiroshima is famous for the worst reason, yet people here just go about their daily lives, which of course is the only thing to do. Still, I was surprised to be here and realize how normal it felt, and was happy to see it flourish as a city. I could never live here because of what happened, but who knows how I would feel if I was actually from here.

Still, Hiroshima is most famous for what happened to it during the war. A symbol of the war and the city's most important visitor destination is the A-Bomb Dome. It was once the Industrial Promotion Hall, and was the building that stood under the hypocenter - the point where the bomb exploded. Since the bomb exploded above the building, the force went outward destroying the city, but it wasn't strong enough to knock down this building. Everyone in the building died instantly and the building was heavily damaged, but it was one of only a few buildings that remained standing. It is now a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
The A-Bomb Dome is next to the Peace Memorial Park, wich contains many monuments to victims of the bombing.
You can see the dome on the right - the only visible scar of the war left in the city.
The centerpiece of the park is the Flame of Peace, which will be extinguished only when all nuclear weapons have been eliminated from Earth. The Cenotaph for the victims of the bomb contains the names of all those who died. It's a very interesting monument, as you can look through it and see down the park all the way to the A-Bomb Dome.
The park also contains a museum about the events of August 6, 1945. At 8.15am, the US decided to deploy an entirely new and untested weapon to force Japan to surrender. Tens of thousands of people were killed instantly, and the death toll rose to around 200 000 over the following years from after effects. It's still difficult to determine how many people died from the bomb, as it's difficult to measure the long term effects of radiation on so many people.

The museum was excellent at explaining the events leading up to the bombing, not sparing blame from either side. Japan was agressive during the war, and refused to surrender, for the selfish reason that the terms of their surrender didn't guarantee the Emperial line. The US, however, did everyting to ensure Japan wouldn't surrender. By not ensuring the continuation of the Emperial line, the US rejected Japan's only demand. Also, they didn't give Japan any warning that a nuclear bomb would be used if they didn't surrender. The US needed to drop the bomb to justify the time and cost spent on its development to tax payers. They also wanted to end the war and prevent the Russian's from entering Japan and spreading their communist ideals.

One of the reasons the death toll was so high, was that at the time of the bombing the Japanese government had all citizens working outdoors, taking apart buildings to make less visible targets for bombers in the case of air raids. Instead of going to school, children were busy outdoors taking apart their schools. As a result, most people were working outside when the US dropped the bomb, completely exposed.

The US used the merging of the Ota and Motoyasu rivers as their target for the bomb; this is why the Dome survived.

This is Hiroshima pre-bomb:

And after the bomb (just one bomb!!!):
Someone who was waiting on the steps outside a bank had their shadow burned into the wall. The radiation was so strong that it even exposed film that was locked away in concrete vaults.
The visit to the museum was defnintely depressing, so the next day we decided to get out of the city and see something more pleasant. The dome is on the river, from where we took this boat to Miyajima Island. There's also a nice waterside cafe nearby where we had lunch one day.

The entire island is considered sacred, which is why it has many temples, including a floating tori gate. Because of its sacred status, no one is permitted to give birth or die on the island, which is why there are no maternity wards or cemeteries there. Cutting down trees is also forbidden, so the island is covered in forest, which is why it's filled with deer.

When we got to Miyajima the first thing I saw was a sign telling us not to feed the deer. I wondered if we would get a chance to see deer on the trip and hoped that we would. Seconds later I spotted a deer, then another... It turned out there were deer all over the place. This one is a mom with a fawn.

They really were everywhere...

In the background you can see the floating torii gate leading to the Itsukushima Shrine.

And the land torii.

There were lots of school groups on the island, and this one had an English assignment in which they had to interview foreingers. We had a fan club.

Since it was lowtide, we could get very close to the torii. The great flaoting tori is the main entrance to the Itsukushima Shrine...

...which was founded in 593. It was built on stilts over the cove and has the oldest Noh (classical Japanese musical drama) stage in Japan.

You can clearly see the stilts; the shrine is normally on water.

In the background you can see the tori on the water.

The five story pagoda is called the Goju-no-to and was built in 1407.

The island also had very nice shops, restaurants, canals and bridges. Very picturesque.

Spot the deer...
They even had homemade carnival games set up for kids.
Senjokaku Pavillion, or "pavillion of the thousand tatami mats" was built in 1587 and used for Buddhist chanting and meditation.

It was very austere and raw compared to the brightly colored Itsukushima Shrine, but still very beautiful.

When I got icecream, it came with a deer...

...and within minutes, I had a posse.
We also took a cable car up to Mount Misen, which was considered sacred and had many little shrines and statues. It also had an amazing view.
Since these shrines are on a mountain, they can't make fresh fruit offerings on a regular basis.

That's why these gods get canned pineapple.
There was also a very shady lookout station on the mountain, and more deer.
The mountain is also a monkey sanctuary, but unfortunately we didn't see any monkeys. This sign was humorous enough though.
By the early evening, the tide had risen and the floating tori was fully in the water. At high tide the entire temple stands on water, and boats pass through this gate.

Back in Hiroshima, we visited our first Japanese castle. Hiroshima castle was destroyed by the bomb, but a faithful reconstruction was completed in 1958.

The castle had some interestingly shaped murder holes: holes for shooting from.

The main castle is where the Shogun and his men worked. This castle wasn't very big, but it was nice.

They even had a statue of the first Shogun.
On Saturday April 2nd, over 3 weeks after the earthquake, we caught the bullet train back to Tokyo. It was incredibly fast; so fast you can't really see things when you look out the window - it's just a blur of activity. We did pass right by Mt. Fuji, which was pretty cool to see and a perfect cone. The Japanese like things neat and orderly, to the point that even their tallest mountain is a perfect specimen.

Back in Tokyo the weather was grey and the atmosphere solemn. Things were back to normal on the surface, but the bright neon lights Tokyo is known for were dark (and are still so to this day), water was rationed and trains were not running at 100%. It was a hard decision to make, because unlike the Japanese, we don't actually have to be here. Still, things were getting better, and I felt like there was still way more to be done in Japan...