Hiroshima & Miyajima- A bittersweet feeling !

The Dome and the history of bombing. 

On August 6, 1945 America dropped atom bomb on Japanese city of Hiroshima. While this precipitated the end to the Pacific War & World War II,  a nice and robust town having strategic industrial and military significance was flattened out totally with almost eighty thousand dead immediately and lakhs suffering radiation for rest of their lives. 

Once it had been decided that we would be traveling to Japan for our summer vacations and would be spending part of our holiday at Osaka, I had very much decided that Hiroshima will be an integral part of our itinerary. Not only did I want to visit this city about which I had been hearing and reading since childhood, I wanted my children to experience the museum which graphically gave a full account of what happened and the effects it had. 

Once again it was the bullet train (Shinkansen) which got us to Hiroshima from Osaka in less than 90 minutes. Traveling within Japan becomes very easy and swift due to these super efficient and fast trains. The more we traveled on bullet trains, the more value for money we got out of our Japanese Rail pass. We did utilise the pass very well. 

At the train station we boarded a tourist bus and bought the tickets for full day. Here we made a mistake as we could have saved this money as JR pass was valid on this bus but we missed the sign that said so. 

This bus is very convenient as it takes you to all the tourist spots.

The bus goes in a full circle and brings you back to the rail station. It is a hop on hop off bus. After every 30 minutes the bus leaves the rail station . You can get off anywhere and then after visiting the attraction you can board the next bus. We got off at the Hiroshima castle and spent some time reading about its history and relaxing in the gardens. This castle was similar to the Osaka castle. An hour later we boarded another bus. 

Hiroshima Castle

 After this the bus stopped at many places like art/music college, University, Museums etc but our interest was somewhere else. We did not get off anywhere else till we reached the Genbaku Dome. The Dome is today the most significant symbol of the destruction that Hiroshima faced.

You can see the new modern buildings behind the Dome. 

We had been in Hiroshima for a couple of hours before reaching the dome. Hiroshima comes as a surprise as it is a bustling city with modern buildings, good roads and busy markets. It comes as a surprise because you have  an image of devastation in your mind before you come here. The Dome was very near the epicentre and in some way that had prevented it from being flattened out at the time the bomb dropped here. All other buildings in the town were destroyed totally. The city council and the citizens did well not to let it be destroyed while re-making the city and preserved it for future generations to see. This perhaps is the only structure which remains from that time and it is a reminder of what the city went through.

The memorial

From the Dome we walked to the memorial nearby and paid homage to many who got killed by this senseless action. I say it was senseless because America bombed Japan just to prove a point to Russia and to show that it had a bomb. Japan could have been defeated without the bomb also. Hiroshima and Nagasaki were chosen as targets as their topography guaranteed maximum damage and deaths.

The museum 

A short walk from the memorial is the museum and we spent a couple of hours here. They have audio- visuals here and they have graphic pictures which make you feel really sad. The story about that day and aftermath is presented to you through visuals and sounds and several actual pictures. In one of the displays, the city is shown as a a bustling urban centre full of greenery before being bombed. Next we see the city becoming black and full of death - all this is shown digitally and the visuals are created to maximise the effect. History of bomb, the reasons why it was made, the reasons why Hiroshima was bombed- all this is presented beautifully. Many stories are presented there and unfortunately all of them are sad.

I have titled the experience bitter-sweet as experiencing all this at the Dome, the memorial, and the museum makes you very sad. But seeing the bustling city today and the fact that world has desisted from this kind of use of Atom bomb since then - this is a pleasing aspect. I am really pleased that we made an effort to come here and this visit will remain an integral part of the memories of the Japan trip.

Miyajima 

The Tori gate - a symbol of Japan in advertisements. 

The Miyajima Tori gate in the middle of water is an advertisement you may have seen often in magazines and the net. You immediately associate this symbol with Japan so a visit here became necessary. Miyajima is an island just off Hiroshima and reaching here is not very difficult.

We went by the same bus from the museum to the station, had a quick lunch there and boarded a JR train to Miyajinaguchi station which must be around 40 minutes away. A short walk away is a ferry terminal and there is a JR ferry as well with a 30 minute service which takes you to the island of Miyajima. This ride is included in your JR rail pass. From the ferry you can see the island and the Tori gate as you approach it. The cameras start working from the ferry itself.

Ferry terminal at Miyajima

Miyajima is a nice island with lovely green hills. We walked till the Tori gate for a few pictures and then checked out the shrine . By now we had seen so many shrines and temples that this one looked no different. However the setting was quite pleasing to the eyes due to the lush green surroundings.

We walked back to the ferry terminal through the market and as you can see from the picture below, a lot of deer roamed around in Miyajima as well. Thankfully they were not as greedy as the ones in Nara.

Many deer were present in Miyajima as well.

We had made a booking for our trip back to Osaka on Shinkansen so it was time to go back. On the way from ferry station to Miyajinaguchi station we found a delightful cafe called 'The bluebird coffee shop' which served great coffee and frappes. The owner had started business in a vehicle many years ago before graduating to a full fledged cafe. The vehicle was part of the decor of cafe now and you can see in the picture below on the right side, each part of vehicle was being utilised.

This was our last evening in the southern part of Japan as we were leaving for Tokyo the next day. We had been in the south for almost 6 days. As was expected, the last evening in Osaka was spent amongst the crowds and hustle bustle of Dotonbury street.


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