The A Bomb Cities - Hiroshima & Nagasaki

My next destination was Hiroshima and my first stop was to go to the Peace Memorial Museum in the Peace Park. The place was a pretty heart-wrenching experience and had lots of testimonies about people searching for loved ones and exhibits of clothing and personal effects. Its really hard to describe the feelings that I experienced while I was in there - I was certainly lost for words.

The next day I went around the Peace Park and the various memorials that they have there - including the Cenotaph where they hold the annual remembrance and the A Bomb Dome - one of the few buildings that remained standing after the bomb exploded.

I went and visited Hiroshima-jo - the castle which was destroyed by the bomb and has been completely re-built and now included an exhibition inside about city. I then went to the art museum - there was only one piece there that I really wanted to see and it was Dali's Dreams of Venus - the melting clocks. There was also a Japanese garden next to it (Shukkei-en) which I wandered around. It was very peaceful there despite being in a major city!

Back at the hostel, a group of us (Robbie, Amy, Craig, Evelyn and Andrew) were interviewed for a Japanese news channel about what we thought of the Peace Museum and how the message could be put across about the effects of atomic bombs. It was for a series of reports leading up to the anniversary next month. It was a pretty difficult topic to talk about but we all managed to say a few words. It was only going to be shown in the Hiroshima area so none of us would get to see it! We decided to go out after that and ended up in Bob's nightclub!

The next day, Andrew, Neil and I went over to Miyajima - one of the islands in the Inland Sea. As we arrived, we saw the O-Torii gate (the floating shrine) - as the tide was in the shrine looked like it floated on water. We also went around the Itsukushima Shrine that is built out onto the water. They also have the largest wooden rice spoon there - some guy decided that he was going to carve it (its about 5m long!)

I then headed to Fukuoka and spent the day with the sister of my host 'mum' from Nara - Shizuko. She and her daughter Riisa and I went to the main park - Ohori-Koen before going to the Fukuoka Tower and getting a birds-eye view of the city. In the afternoon, we headed over to see the shrine of Dazai Fu.

The next day I went down to Nagasaki. Their A Bomb Museum was a lot smaller than the one in Hiroshima but it had a lot more information on the development of atomic weapons, the Cold War and about modern terrorism. I went into their Memorial Hall which is a large room, with 12 pillars of light and a tall pillar with the names of everyone that has died either from the bomb or from the effects of the radiation that it caused. I then walked through the Hypocentre Park and the Peace Park and came to their Statue of Peace.

The next day, I explored the rest of Nagasaki and went to the Memorial of the 26 Martyrs - a memorial to the 26 Christians that were executed when the Emperor decided to banish foreigners and Christianity from Japan. I then made my way to the Spectacle Bridge - a perfect reflection is supposed to look like glasses but the weather wasn't playing ball! I also went through Chinatown, to Oura Catholic Church (the oldest Church in Japan) and to Glover Gardens.

My time in the A Bomb Cities has taught me that I really didn't know much about the history involving Japan in the Second World War and it was a pretty emotional experience being here. I'm glad that I came though and saw the effects that the bombs had.