Monday 27th October
After the loooong day we had yesterday, we thought we would make Monday a slightly quieter day ….
I’d already decided I didn't want to go to the Peace Museum. We have been before and I didn’t think it was necessary to go again. However, we didn’t do the whole Peace Park last time as it was raining cats and dogs.
Today was bright and bloody hot, so Peace Park was on the schedule for today …..
It’s a strange one. We know the history and what the Japanese went through in August 1945 and they have memorialised that event with a number of different meaningful statues, words and memorials.
We got the little tourist bus (Meipurupu) to the Dome and started from there ….
As I’m taking the photos, Scott disappeared …. I found him surrounded by young ladies … can’t leave him alone for a minute!
:
These lovely ladies were students and were asking him where he was from and what he thought of nuclear weapons…. He answered then ran away…. He admitted he only stopped because he thought they wanted him to take a photo of them.
A bit further round is the memorial for mobilised students. This was for all the students that were called upon in 1944 to serve their country during the war (munitions factories etc). On August 6th there were approximately 6000 students working in these businesses and perished in the blast. This was built for them with funds donated by the bereaved families of these students
It’s quite busy around the park (obvs - it’s a big tourist spot) … but there are also hundreds of kids in all colour of caps. Some in uniforms and some not.
The next stop is the Children’s Peace Monument. This is commemorate Sadako Sasaki and the thousands of children who died in the bomb blast. Sadako is known for folding over 1000 cranes because she had been told that the crane is a sacred bird in Japan and lives for a hundred years and if a person folds 1000 cranes, they will get well.
When we got the the Children’s Monument, there were a load of kids doing some kind of ‘service’ saying a few words and singing a song, then hanging their cranes in the boxes around the monument. It was lovely to watch.
We wandered down towards the Peace Museum and passed the Peace Memorial and the eternal flame…. This flame will stay lit until every nuclear weapon is destroyed.
To get this iconic shot - everyone waited in turn but I was right in the sun and couldn’t really see what I was taking … but quite happy with the result …..
As I said, we didn’t go into the actual Museum and it was a good decision as there was a massive queue to get in and it looked packed.
Instead we wandered back through the park and discovered a new building. Apparently in 2019, during a field survey, the atomic bomb remnants of houses and roads were discovered 60 to 90 centimetres below the ground. This is a small museum that shows the remnants of a house and the carbonised tatami mats. The remnants are protected from the sun and external elements so no photos …. There was a personal account of a survivor - It was a somber read.
Finally we passed the Atomic Bomb Memorial Mound. This contains the ashes of 70000 atomic bomb victims. Many of which will never be known.
Although there are a number of memorials and monuments, the whole park is a huge open space with lots of trees and benches where people sit and kids play …. It’s not a morbid place but does make you think …..
It was a strange day and we’d done a looot of walking - even though this was going to be an easy day 😉.
We finished the day by walking through the shopping center and back to the house … grabbed some food on the way and collapsed ……
Plans for tomorrow may be a trip to Bunnie Island ….. 🐰
Until tomorrow - Oyasumi Nasai ❤️
No comments:
Post a Comment