A trip to Japan is not complete without visiting the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park. The images of the atomic mushroom cloud are etched into our consciousness  from an early age, but the true reality of what went on beneath the cloud cannot be fully understood without visiting the bomb site. The horror of  what happened on August the 6th, 1945 when the world’s first atomic bomb was detonated in the sky over Hiroshima is not easily forgotten and nor should it be.

For a small fee you can hire an audio guide that explains the various exhibits and recounts many of the life experiences of those who survived the bombing. We recommend you do this as it adds detail to the museum tour that you would miss out on without it. A warning though. This is very upsetting and we were moved to tears at many points throughout the tour.

At 8:15am on the morning of August 6 the bomb briefly flashed at a height of 600 meters and then erupted into an enormous fireball like the sun. All buildings were completely destroyed within a radius of two kilometers from the hypocenter, testifying to the enormous power of the blast. A wrist watch, stopped by the explosion is chilling evidence of the time of detonation and in a single moment thousands of human lives were lost. It is impossible to visit this museum and not feel a sense of shame.

The story of Sadako Sasaki is both tragic and some how strangely uplifting. Sadako was exposed to the A-bomb at the age of two but escaped without apparent injury. Ten years later, in her sixth year of elementary school, she suddenly contracted leukemia and was hospitalized the following year. She folded paper cranes continuously hoping they would help her recover, but after an eight month battle with the disease, she died. Sadako’s death triggered a movement to build a monument to all the children killed by the A-bomb, and the Children’s Peace Monument was erected in Peace Memorial Park with donations received from all over Japan. Sadako’s story has since travelled around the world. Every year, countless paper cranes are sent to this monument in her honor, as a symbol of peace and in the hope the world will never see an atomic bomb used ever again.

Each year on the anniversary of the bombing the Mayor of Hiroshima issues a Peace Declaration, you can read the 2008 declaration here.

2008 Peace Declaration