The War Museum and Miyajima Island
Trip Start
Apr 25, 2006
1
20
76
Trip End
Apr 25, 2007
Hiroshima,
Japan
Tuesday, May 16, 2006
The early start for a lavish brekky of snags, eggs and toast was well worth it, and I was given the green light to tag along with Tom & Joe seeing as we had roughly the same plans for the day. They obviously brought the english weather with them, so we faced some cold, rainy conditions
A-Bomb Dome
. Some people had trustingly left their umbrellas at the front door, so naturally we pinched one each and headed for the bus.The bus terminal was only a short stroll from the A-bomb Dome - it is famous for surviving the blast while only being 160m from the hypercentre. Another leisurely stroll took us to the Hiroshima Museum and surrounding parks which were quite picturesque. The Memorial Museum was not exactly riveting, but it did contain an amazing 360 degree tiled representation of the bomb aftermath. The Museum was predictably crowded, and was a relatively detailed look at how Hiroshima was effected as well as how they have coped and rebuilt.
Some facts I found interesting:
1. Some power was restored only 3 days after the bomb, and there were trams running within 3 weeks.
2. The US chose not to firebomb a few choice cities in Japan that were considered candidates for testing out the A-bomb. Cities were chosen if they had at least a 3.5km radius of built-up residential/industrial areas so that aerial shots of the aftermath would easily show the results. For several months the US dropped test bombs on various cities to test the trajectory the real bomb would take.
3. Wartime Generals actually suggested using the A-bomb on a port for maximum military impact, but in the end it was dropped right in the middle of the city and a few major military instillations survived as a result.
4. Hiroshima was eventually chosen because they had good weather on the day, and were thought to have few POWs held there
Business district
.5. The US spent more than 2 billion on the Manhatton Project (A-bomb development) and were under extreme political pressure to show some results.
6. The second A-bomb dropped on Nagasaki was a way of expediting an end to the war, partially because Russia had commenced invading from the north and the US wanted to limit their bargaining power in post-war negotiations.
Feeling completely drained after a few hours of harrowing images and information overload, we realised that it was only midday due to the ridiculously early start to the day! Although I had originally planned to hit Miyajima another day, we decided to knock it off straight away instead. We jumped on the train, then ferried across to the island famous for it's floating gate. The rain had gone away at this stage so the umbrellas were more of a hindrance than anything else. Was a bit of a bummer that we missed the high tide too, because that gate wasn't floating! The island has a heap of tame deer that wander around trying to eat stuff out of your pockets, and is a pretty good place just to walk around for a general browse.
At some stage we all decided to go to the top of the mountain in search of a good view - it was not long after Joe was talking to some chick who was heading to the top. He was keen. The round trip was a cool 1800 yen which was a massive burn, but nonetheless we jumped in the ropecar and began the slow journey. At the top we were supposed to be greeted by crazy violent monkeys, but we got nothin'! The view was not too special either, so we took a couple of photos and waited for the next ropecar back to the bottom.
To be continued....
(Random Rampage - our pissy night out)
