March 14
Hiroshima dates back to 1589 with the building of the Hiroshima Castle, from which it got its name. Whatever one sees and experiences here will certainly be influenced by the events of August 6, 1945 when the first atomic bomb was dropped. At 8:15 a.m. on that fateful day, the name Hiroshima became forever etched in the collective psyche of mankind.
Today it serves as a major auto manufacturing city, the Mazda Motor Company was founded here in 1920 and the headquarters remain here. It was quite interesting to learn that Mazda became the first and only Japanese company to win the LeMans Grand Prix.
We arrived at 8:00am, it was a nice sail-in and a beautiful sunrise. We left the ship at around 9:30am and walked to the streetcar station. Luckily we had some assistance from a Japanese woman who got off the streetcar with us and walked us to the Peace Memorial Park. Once in the park we went to the Peace Memorial Museum and toured the two buildings with its three floors. Upon entering they had a video showing the aftermath of the bombing and both Betty and I had tears in our eyes. It was very sad to see the destruction leveled by “Little Boy”, the atomic bomb. After we arrived I had to go to the bathroom so I saw a sign that had a picture of a man and a woman with an up and down arrow, so I figured one was upstairs and one downstairs. Well after going up and down I realized it was the sign for the elevator. I eventually found the restroom and never wet my pants! The museum was very graphic, and very, very sad. The information we received stated the museum was a must see, but it would ruin the rest of your day.
Above the Peace Memorial Museum and Betty at the Cenotaph for A-Bomb Victims
As Betty & I can do a Museum in no time, we told Wayne & Karen, our trivia partners, we would go ahead. They caught up with us some time later and we then visited the Peace Park Memorial, Cenotaph for A-Bomb Victims, the Eternal Flame and then the Atomic Bomb Dome. What a beautiful memorial to the victims. Betty bought a peace medal from Hiroshima to go with the peace medal from Nagasaki she received from her cousin years ago. We also saw the Children’s Peace Memorial inspired by Sadako Sasaki, a girl who at two years old was exposed to the A-bomb. Ten years later, she entered the Red Cross hospital with radiation related leukemia. Despite the pain from her disease she faithfully folded paper cranes in hope of a cure, it is a symbol of long life. She died 8 months later. Now the park receives nearly 10 million paper cranes made by children throughout the world annually in the name of world peace.
Children’s Peace Memorial
A-Bomb Dome
We also stopped at the Memorial Tower to the Mobilized Students which commemorates the 6300 students who were conscripted to work in munitions factories and killed in the atomic blast. There were doves scattered throughout it’s five levels, at the base is a beautiful Kannon statue, always draped with origami cranes.
We rested for a while as I am still having a hard time breathing. Then we headed to the Hiroshima Castle. We walked by the Hiroshima professional ballpark where the Hiroshima Carp play.(Good thing we didn’t name our ball team the Cleveland Carp.) While walking to the castle we stumbled upon a beautiful Shrine called the Gokoku Shrine. The castle wasn’t easy to find as it was surrounded by a moat filled with ducks-but no alligators. Eventually we found an entrance and took some pictures.
The next stop was supposed to be the Shukkein Gardens but time was getting short and we had a long way back to the ship. Ended up at the Sogo Department store on Aioi-dori Avenue which was near the streetcar back to the port. We looked around the store but things were very expensive. Before heading to the streetcar station we spotted a few stores in the underground shopping area and decided to check them out. Betty bought some well-need gloves, a few cards and a loaf of Cinnamon bread. (We don’t get enough food on the ship!) I bought some Japanese Beer called “ Sapporo”. We then caught the streetcar and headed back to the Kaigan-dori station. We were both exhausted and still had a 20 minute walk from the station to the pier. We got back a half a hour before the ship was leaving. Surprised I walked as much as I did. I would like to add that the streetcar operators were very helpful even though they did not speak English. Also the street was very clean and you could only smoke at designated smoking areas. We usually try to eat somewhere local but didn’t this time as the menus were all in Japanese. I was afraid we’d end up with eel stuffed with bean paste or something equally strange.
As usual we skipped the dining room on port days and headed to the buffet. It isn’t like us not to eat all day and we were hungry. Afterwards we decided skip the evening’s entertainment and go back to the room to prepare for another day in port. I could use a sea day!
On leaving we will sail through the Kanmon Strait, the Seto Naikai pilot will disembark at 3:30 a.m. and we will make a short passage across the Korea Strait, passing Tsushima Island, to the South Korean port of Busan, where we will expect to arrive around mid-morning.
