After about 13 hours of traveling I had finally reached the westernmost point of my journey, Hiroshima city. Getting off the train, it was just about as hot Nagoya, which is hot. In order to get to the hostel I had booked, I had to hop on a local street car (no subway in Hiroshima) and then take a short walk. I ended up making the journey with a French family going to the same place (the first of many French tourists I was to encounter), and as it turns out, I do remember some of the French I learned in high school, even having not used any for the last 6 years.

I was understandably tired after the travel, so after a short walkabout I went to bed for the night. I next day I got a reasonably early start, with the goal of taking in the sites of the Atomic Bomb Peace Park. As most of you will know, Hiroshima was the site of the first ever atomic bomb attack, on August 6, 1945 during World War II.  The statistic on the number of dead varies between 140,000 and 200,000, but regardless, the destruction, as you will see fro the photographs, was incredible. There is now an entire park dedicated to the memory of this event.

The first site I visited was the Atomic Bomb Dome (recently made a UNESCO World Heritage site). The dome is one of the few structures that was left standing, in frame form, following the explosion. The bomb went off about 400 metres directly above this structure, which was, at the time, some type of convention centre.

On the other side of the river from the Dome is the Children?s Memorial. This memorial was built to commemorate one girl in particular, Sadako. She survived the original attack, but died some years later from leukemia. While in hospital she devoted her time to folding Japanese origami paper cranes, a symbol of peace and good luck. Some believe that if you fold 1000 thousand of them, a wish will be granted; so that?s what she aimed to do. In the glass cases surrounding the statue of Sadako are tens of thousands of paper cranes folded by children from all around the world.

Directly behind this memorial is the Bomb victims? cenotaph, a large pool of water with a concrete case containing the names of all the victims at its end. On the particular day that I was there, something rather strange was going on. The pool was filled with local citizens, who appeared to be scrubbing and otherwise cleaning the monument. I discovered later that this was in preparation for the anniversary ceremonies which were to take place at the site the next week.

Following this somewhat strange occurrence, I moved on to the main section of the Peace Park, the Bomb Memorial Museum. This was by far the busiest of the sites I?d been to up to that point. Inside the museum, guided by an audio tour, you walk through a long series of exhibits, starting with background information on the city, the war and the bomb. There are also some rather shocking pictures of the damage and the before/after comparison. In the second half of the museum, various objects and artifacts from the bomb and its effects are on display. I found these things particularly disturbing. I took pictures of a few so you can see for yourself; there were, however, some other things, including human remains, which I chose not to photograph. Indeed, I, and others I talked to felt that some things on display probably shouldn?t be. But, in the end, the Museum, and the entire city have a strong anti-nuclear message they want to get across, and I suppose the shock factor is one way to go about it.

It?s difficult for me to describe how I felt coming away from it all. It wouldn?t be right to call in enjoyable or even interesting as you would other tourist attractions. I suppose it just something I felt I ought to see just for the sake of seeing it. It certainly made me think about a lot of things in a different way.