Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park

About 2 hours on the Bullet train from Osaka were we were staying, is the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park in Hiroshima. The park is dedicated to the legacy of Hiroshima as the first city in the world to suffer a nuclear attack. The park has been built on a open field that was created by the explosion of the atomic bomb. The park contains many different memorials and monuments dedicated to the memories of the bomb's direct and indirect victims and also to advocate world peace. Also in the park is a museum that has an incredible display of artifacts from the bombing as well as the story of the strive for world peace today.
 Some of notable monuments in the Peace Park are :

 The Children's Peace Monument is a statue dedicated to the memory of the children who died as a result of the bombing. The statue is of a girl with outstretched arms with a folded paper crane rising above her. The statue is based on the true story of Sadako Sasaki a young girl who died from radiation from the bomb. She believed that if she folded 1,000 paper cranes she would be cured. People from around the world still fold cranes and send them to Hiroshima where they are placed near the statue. The statue has a continuously replenished collection of folded cranes nearby.

Children's Peace Monument 

Children's Peace Monument 

Children's Peace Monument 

The paper cranes

The paper cranes

 The A-Bomb Dome is the ruins of the former Industrial Promotion Hall. It is the building closest to the hypocenter of the nuclear bomb that remained at least partially standing. It has been left how it was after the bombing in memory of the casualties.

A-Bomb Dome

A-Bomb Dome

A-Bomb Dome

Families sketching the A-Bomb Dome

 The Atomic Bomb Memorial Mound is a large, grass-covered knoll that contains the ashes of 70,000 unidentified victims of the bomb.

Atomic Bomb Memorial Mound

The  Memorial Cenotaph holds the names of all of the people killed by the bomb. The monument is aligned to frame the Peace Flame and the A-Bomb Dome. The Memorial Cenotaph was one of the first memorial monuments built in the park. The arch shape represents a shelter for the victims of the bombing. The Peace Flame is another monument to the victims of the bomb that destroyed Hiroshima, but it has an additional symbolic purpose. The flame has burned continuously since it was lit in 1964, and will remain lit until all nuclear bombs on the planet are destroyed

Memorial Cenotaph

 The Peace Flame

The Bell of Peace consists of a large Japanese bell hanging inside a dome structure. Visitors are encouraged to ring the bell for world peace . The surface of the bell is a map of the world.

Plaque at the Bell of Peace

The Bell of Peace