the random oracle

Of course the first thing anyone thinks about when they hear “Hiroshima” is the atom bomb.  I hadn’t originally planned on visiting Hiroshima, but when I decided to go to Miyajima and discovered that Hiroshima was the transfer station, I decided to spend the second half of the day there, and I’m very glad I made that decision.

Actually the first thing that I saw in Hiroshima wasn’t related at all to the bombing; I went to see the Shukkien garden (缩景园), which literally translates into the “Shrunken Scenery Garden”.  It’s a miniature replica of Xihu lake (西湖) in Hangzhou (), which is one of the most famous sites in all of China.  I visited Xihu lake before but I’m ashamed to say that it was so long ago that I don’t remember anything about it but the dinner that we had there.  Shukkien garden was beautiful, and in fact it was much nicer than the gardens we visited in China in one very important respect: it was empty!  There were barely any other people in the garden when I was there, so it was a nice place to take a breather, appreciate the (shrunken) scenery, and just chill out for a little bit.

From there I wandered over to the Atomic Bomb Dome  (原爆ドーム), which is the remains of the Hiroshima Industrial Promotion Hall.  The bomb was dropped about 160m away from this cite, and it’s amazing that anything withstood the blast.  The ruins are eerily out of place when contrasted with the vibrant, modern city of Hiroshima behind it, but it stands as a grim reminder of Hiroshima’s painful history.

The city is keen not to forget the lessons of that fateful morning on August 6th, 1945, and the park next to the Dome preserves the memory of those who perished and those who survived.  Both the Memorial Hall and the Museum are worth a visit, but be warned because the images are terribly disturbing and somber.  I had to keep from crying several times in the museum; to read about it sitting in a classroom is one thing, but to see the pictures and the melted and twisted remains of people’s belongings steps away from where they were vaporized without warning is another.  I’m glad that this museum exists, especially given the rather disturbing change in sentiment in Japanese politics these days, where the leaders increasingly view going nuclear as a necessary, perhaps even appropriate and desirable measure for national security.

On the way back to the train station from the museum I came across another less well-known reminder of Hiroshima’s (in)famous past: the former Hiroshima branch of the Bank of Japan (旧日本银行广岛支), which is the only building in central Hiroshima whose edifice predates the bombing.  You can see from the picture that the inscription above the door was mostly burned away by the bomb, but other than that the building is still in use as a museum.