Posts here in the next three days will detail my visit to the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park, the Atomic Bomb Dome, and the Atomic Bomb Museum. I found these places to be deeply moving and hard to forget. As I’ve mentioned in previous posts, the U.S. dropped the first nuclear bomb on Hiroshima on August 6, 1945. The bomb killed 140,000 people, either directly or indirectly.

The building closest to the center of the blast that survived in some part is the Hiroshima Prefectural Industrial Promotion Hall, which has been left in its damaged state as a memorial. The skeletal dome stands across the river from the rest of the memorial park and is a silent reminder to the destruction of August 6.

The Rest House, across the river from the Atomic Dome, also survived the blast, though it was greatly damaged in the attack. This art deco building was a Kimono Shop before it became the Fuel House during the war. Today it serves as a tourist information center and houses offices.

Title quote: the “spirit of Hiroshima” as noted on an inscription in the Peace Park