After our adventures in Kyoto (day 1, day 2, day 3), our next stop was Hiroshima. With two nights here, we only had time to see the major sight in Hiroshima – the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park, and to do a day trip to Miyajima Island. There are other things to do in Hiroshima, like visiting the Mazda museum, catching a Hiroshima Carp baseball game or checking out the excellent contemporary art museum. We’ll have to make it back to Hiroshima some day and spend more time there.

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We took a morning train to Hiroshima from Kyoto and arrived just at the right time to have some lunch before exploring the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park. Because of our limited time in Hiroshima, we decided to stay at the Hotel Granvia, which is conveniently attached to the train station where we arrived.

Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park

Adding to the sightseeing efficiency of the location of our accommodation, there is a sightseeing loop bus that leaves right from the station. This bus will take you to all of the tourist sights in downtown Hiroshima. A number of these sights commemorate the dropping of an atomic bomb on Hiroshima at the end of World War Two. These sights are all grouped together in the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park. This park was built on the open space left when a central section of downtown Hiroshima was destroyed by the atomic bomb blast.

There are memorials to the victims of the blast, and monuments advocating world peace. In addition to these, there is a museum that tells the story of the tragic events of 1945. The overall theme of the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park is simple – “Never Again”.

A-Bomb Dome

The bus dropped us close to possibly he most significant sight in the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park, the A-Bomb Dome. Grey skies and intermittent rain seemed appropriate to the seriousness of the memorial.

The A-Bomb dome is what remains of the Hiroshima Prefectural Industrial Promotion Hall. This is the building closest to hypocenter of the atomic bomb blast that remained at least partially standing. It has been preserved in its damaged state in memory of the casualties of the blast.

Children’s Peace Monument

We next made our way to the monument placed in memory of the children who died in the blast. A girl with outstretched arms and an origami crane stands at the top of the statue.

The origami crane has become a symbol of Hiroshima. This is based on the story of a young girl who died from radiation poisoning from the bomb. She folded 1,000 paper cranes in the belief that she would be cured. To this day, people from around the world continue to send origami cranes to Hiroshima.

Peace Flame and Cenotaph

Other monuments in the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park include the Peace Flame and the Cenotaph.

The Peace Flame has burned continuously since 1964. It will remain lit until there are no nuclear weapons in the world.

The Cenotaph holds the names of all of the people killed by the a-bomb. This monument is positioned to line up with the Peace Flame and the A-Bomb Dome.

Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum

There are quite a few other monuments throughout the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park. However, it was time for us to visit the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum. While the monuments in the park represented the large scale of the events in Hiroshima, the pictures, artifacts and stories from survivors in the museum showed the effect that the a-bomb had on individual people.

After a somewhat heavy day of sightseeing, we decompressed (and rested our weary legs) with a delicious meal of Hiroshima-style okonomiyaki in the food court at the train station. This was another advantage of staying in a hotel right at the station. You can usually find a good selection of food options in Japanese train stations, and Hiroshima was no exception.

We had a fairly early night, resting up for our next adventure. Our plan for the next day was to venture out from Hiroshima for a day trip to Miyajima Island.