Miyajima - Hiroshima

We reached Miyajima (Jima means island) after a 40min train ride from Dobashi. At Miyajima-guchi station, right next to it was the ferry terminal. Starving, we went for some Hiroshima-style Okonomiyaki that were supposed to be famous.. Didn't enjoy it that much as Osaka-style one though. The difference is in the way they are fried. Osaka-style ones have their ingredients all mixed up while Hiroshima ones are layered. Then we boarded the 10 min ferry! Deers were freely roaming there so we had the chance to play with some of them..

Miyajima is said to have one of the 3 prettiest sights in Japan, which is the Torii (Gate) floating on the water. We arrived at low tide, so got to take some photos close up wif it. Behind it is a huge shrine also constructed on the seabed. The entire island is deemed a shrine so the gate is built in the water to signify that visitors are entering a shrine. The gate is not dug in though.. It is merely resting on its own weight.

On the seabed, with one of the locals who were digging for clams. She got many in her pail.. Probably a few hundred. The shrine built on the seabed is Itsukushima Shrine. High tide would be much nicer!

Oysters were also a must try in Hiroshima. Grilled ones we found but didn't try. We tried a seabream fishcake and maple leaf style cakes with green tea inside though! Pretty good. Then we climbed Mt Misen.... A measly 500+m high wasn't going to be tough we figured.. But it was bloody steep! so we grudgingly finished it. Great view and the expected expensive drinks at the top.

Nearing the summit of Mt Misen, there were a couple of shrines. One of them housed a flame that is said to have been burning for 1200 years now. It was lit by Kobo Daishi, a holy man, in the autumn of year 806. This same flame was also used to light the Flame of Peace in Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park.. Along the way up, there were several small stone altars and where passer-bys would pick up a stone and place it on the ever-growing stack. And then, sheltered from the elements, in a stone crevice, there was another.


Playing with more deers.. And a smile from our deer friend. And then we soaked in the beautiful sights, tried to look cool in some photos and then made our way down after half an hour. On hindsight, it was worth the sweat.


Strolling around the streets of Miyajima. Many tourist shops are found there but half were closed by 630pm. The streets were lined with very beautiful traditional style 2 storey houses. Wooden crafts were a specialty here and that big wooden thing in the photo is a rice scoop.
The bottom right hand corner is a Sanrio shop - packed with Hello Kitties.
Tide came up before we left so we could capture some nicer shots of the Torii.

Stuart yearning for a freezing Coke right now.

Hiroshima - More artifacts

1st row from left: 1. The shadow of a person sitting on the steps when the blast when off. Her shadow remains where she sat. She probably vaporised. The rest of the steps turned lighter in colour. 2. The whole structure preserved. 3. The storyboard.
2nd row from left: 1. Roof tiles and walls melted. 2 & 3. Clothing remains.
3rd row from left: 1. The wheel-like handle's shadow etched onto the steel wall behind it. Thermal rays burnt the steel wall and whitened it, leaving the unburnt area blocked by the handle. 2. Mutated fingernails that grew from radiation exposure. 3. Glass bottles melted.

1st row from left: 1. Bent steel windows from some kilometres away. 2&3. Glass bottles fused and melted.
2nd row from left: 1. Glass bottles twisted and melted. 2&3. Black rain that contained soot, radioactive particles and dust that fell on Hiroshima 20-30 minutes after the blast. Contaminated the water and wrecked havoc on the survivors causing illnesses like diarrohea for weeks.
3rd row from left: 1. Hair that came off from a remaining survivor. She was badly injured and when her mother had stroked her hair to comfort, the whole bunch came off. Fortunately she survived. But contracted cancer in her later years. 2. A real preserved tongue from a victim. On the tongue are 2 purple dots, internal bleedings called "purpuras" caused by radiation exposure. 3. A poem on the nation's resolve in rebuilding Hiroshima.

Diagram showing the hypocenter of the A-Bomb and it's effects on buildings in the surroundings.

Attached this in case the photo collage is too small for reading... Read it.

The full poem

Needless to say, this visit left a deep impression on me. Watching and reading news and protests on nuclear weapons will not be the same from now on. They will invoke strong sentiments. Visit this place if u get the chance.

Stuart - going to bed now... 350am in Japan. Gotta wake early tm.

Hiroshima - Stories of the past

1st Row from left: 1. What it looked like after the blast. 2. Steel windows some kilometres away bent by the shockwaves. 3. Reenactment of wax figurines. Burnt, with melted skins dangling from their faces, arms.. from the searing heat.
2nd row from left: 1 & 2. The watch that stopped at 815am. The instant it detonated. Clothing on victims, that were torn by the blast.
3rd row from left: 1. The red ball above the model of Hiroshima city shows the fire ball that resulted from detonation. 2 &3. Clothing remains.
1st row from left: 1. Charred rice in the lunch box. Found by a mother under her son's burnt unrecognizable body. Only recognizable thing was his lunch box. 2. Water bottle. 3. The size of the bomb, Little Boy. 4 metres only - destroyed 350,000 lives.. Almost 140,000 died instantly. The rest over time.. From cancer, leukemia, internal organs damage..

2nd row from left: 1. Sandal left by a dead 13 yr old girl. Her body wasn't found. but 2 months later, her mother found the sandal hand-made by herself from her kimono. 2. Finger nails and skin left behind by a son. The mother had kept them, wanting to show them to the father who had not returned from the war. 3. Hair remains of a 13 yr old girl who died on Aug 7th morning. The hair is singed in some areas.

3rd row from left: 1. A hat burnt and torn. unknown. 2. A bicycle belonging to a young boy who was killed in the blast. His dad buried it with him in their yard as he was afraid he was too young and would be lonely. 3. Torn clothing remains.

Images of victims.

2nd row 1st photo from left: A lady in Kimono burnt by the thermal rays. The dark pigment areas of her kimono absorbed the most heat thereby scarring her with the imprints.

3rd row 2nd photo from left: Melted and twisted steel structures.

3rd row 3rd photo: Roof tiles melted and joined together..

Stuart

Hiroshima, A-Bomb Dome

Photos say it. The A-Bomb Dome. Few structures withstood the intense heat, shockwaves and blast of thermal energy like it did. Partially collapsed but the main outline is there.

The A-Bomb was did not hit the ground. It detonated 600m in the air. Thus, the area hit is magnified. 160m away from this dome was the hypocentre of the blast. The force came from above and that was prob. why the building could stay intact.

The metal stairs and dome skeleton melted partially and is slanted if you look closely enough.

Radioactive waves, Gamma, could pass through all the walls in all buildings.. Thus, almost everything within the 2km radius were destroyed. Some vaporised. Some charred black. Some blasted away by the tremendous shockwaves.

2+ km away, a man was thrown and bounced around the walls of his house from the shockwaves. Imagine that.

The fire ball, 280m wide, from the nuclear fission of only 50kg of Uranium, produced a searing 1 million degrees hot core. A City destroyed in an instant. Count to 10 and it's over. Hundreds of thousands of lives, dreams, family, thousands of buildings, forests, plants, animals, history.. In less time than it takes youto take a lift up to your home. That was 63yrs back. The nuclear bombs of present will easily wipe out the entire Asia in the same time taken.


On the ground beneath it, temperatures reached 3000 to 4000 degrees in an instant.

It's impossible for us to imagine exactly how it could have been. The waters, canals, seas could have been boiling.

The Cenotaph where annually on August 6, there would be a ceremony where many thousands around the world would attend.. To remember this date and remind everyone not to repeat history.

Beneath the Cenotaph is buried a list of people who have died from the bombing.
That's at the Army Cemetrary.. looking down at the city from above... gives us sad thoughts of how the burning charred Hiroshima would have looked like.

The hills, trees and plants where we are standing will probably have been razed to the ground too.

I took 2 shots of the sky above Hiroshima as i was imagining how those killed would have done so too, as they looked up seconds before the blast and saw the bomb coming down at them from 10,000 feet above. They wouldn't have expected that their lives were ending soon.

No warning was given on the potential damage of this then-new technology, nucleur fission. Everything was top secret till the instant people were killed and Hiroshima destroyed.

Benny and i had a debate whether the Americans should have warned about the capability of their new weapon first before massacring many innocents. We reached no conclusion.. America definitely couldn't sabotage their own pilots and war efforts by informing the enemy.. But this was at the sacrifice of hundreds of thousands.. many innocent civilians. What do you think?

Stuart reflecting..

Hiroshima 15 June

We arrived in Hiroshima today and alighted at the train station after a 12 hour bus journey from last evening at 830pm.

There were tram cars still in use and it was a 1st time for both of us on tram rides. Seen them but never had the chance to take one. Neway, it was comfy and costed a flat 150yen (S$1.90) to anywhere. We took it to Dobashi station and walked to our new lodging at J-Hoppers, a nice backpackers inn.

Ben and i decided to rent bikes to continue our Team George-I-Go tradition from China while Marco and Jackie were still around..

Midway thru, it began raining but we were undeterred and cycled wif our brollies to visit further located shrines, castles, army cemetary and an observatory on a hill.

1st stop was the Peace Memorial Park, a sprawling area that holds the annual remembrance ceremony for those who perished from the Atomic bomb. It was August 6th 1945.
Bottom right hand corner, that's the Eternal flame that keeps burning until the day the last nuclear weapon is destroyed. Behind it is the Peace memorial Museum.


The memorial for all children who were died from the Atomic bomb. Atop is the statue of a young girl, holding up a paper crane which symbolises their dreams for peace.

Anyone can fold and bring their own paper cranes and add them to the shelters around the statue.. And many have done so.


On the eastern side of Hiroshima, we came to some old streets that was called a promenade of history. What we saw there were several shrines and some old residential buildings. Probably not that historical too considering almost everything was flattened just 63 years ago.
We moved southwards to Hiyajima Park afterwards, where we visited a old Army Cemetary with a fantastic view of the city, a Radiation Effects research foundation (juz outside thou) and an observatory which ironically didn't have as good a view as the cemetary had. Looking down towards the now rebuilt city, images of the flattened, charred cityscape which we saw at the museum came to my mind. It was sad recollecting what i saw.

At J-Hoppers... So far, a very nice place.. That's our lounge area. And our rooms are supposed to be shared dorms. However, they ran out of dorms and very nicely allowed us to stay in the private traditional ryokan style rooms for the same price! And even extended the same price for another night's stay in this room! Very good first day here.... Staff are all friendly and speak english so its a breeze to communicate. Rooms are clean, the crowd mix are mainly friendly young and backpacking travellers so the ambience is correct. The owner is a globe-trotting motorcyclist too i read!

And lastly, that is the Hiroshima Castle.. It was already dark when we got there at 745-8pm. It was really small compared to Osaka Castle. As quoted from our travel book "Rough Guides", if you've seen other castles, don't bother comin' to this one. I second that.

Stuart in the lounge... while Benny probably is sprouting Japanese in his dreams in our tatami ryokan room.