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Published: October 26th 2014
Then
The Hiroshima Prefectural Industrial Promotion HallI had long been interested to visit Hiroshima to see what physical evidence of the 6 Aug 1945 bombing was still in existence. One thing I was surprised by was to feel such a connection to the events of that day when I finally saw the remains of
thisbuilding in person. I arrived into Hiroshima on the afternoon of 25 Sep 2014 and immediately came to visit the dome. I took pictures at that time with just my digital camera. I came back the next morning, a clearer weather day, to take pictures with my tablet as a backup in case those pictures came out better. What I am posting is a mixture of the two.
On 6 Aug 1945, this building was known as The Hiroshima Prefectural Industrial Promotion Hall. It is now known as the A-Bomb Dome, or Genbaku Dome, and work has been done to preserve the state of the building to remind us all of the human suffering and destruction that is possible with a nuclear weapon.
For you music fans out there, the song
Manhattan Project by the band Rush provides a sobering backdrop for this subject matter that are present in its lyrics.
Now vs. Then
From the other side of the Ota river The last few photos associated with this blog entry have a fun backstory. In this area there were classes of Japanese children being led through on the way to the Peace Park Museum which is on the other (West) side of the Ota river. On the morning of 26 Sep, as one of the children was passing by me, he greeted me with "Hello!", to which I responded in kind. I was surprised to hear many of his classmates chime in with "Hello!"s of their own. They had great fun with that. As the next couple of classes of children were passing me on their way, I got in the first greeting with an "Ohayo!" or "Konnichiwa!" or "Good Morning!". Those kids just lit up, being invited to speak in English like that. I am not sure if they understood my "Have a good day", but that brief memory still brings a smile to my face.
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