Silver Week - Hiroshima

Our last stop on the Silver Week tour was Hiroshima. The biggest attraction there is, of course, the Peace Park and Museum.

This is the A-Bomb dome - one of the only structures that remained standing after the blast. It was only a few hundred meters from the hypocenter.

From museum models, here is Hiroshima before the blast...

and after...

This statue was almost at the center of the blast - you can see the dark shadow at its base - the only part that was protected. The intense heat turned the rest of the statue bright white.

In the aftermath of the bomb, where the most extensive damage was done, Hiroshima now has a Peace Park. It is filled with monuments to the victims of the bomb. People bring paper cranes to leave by the monuments (particularly the one for children - erected in memory of a 12 year old girl who died from effects of the radiation).

They keep an eternal flame burning, at a fountain that frames the A-Bomb dome in the distance.