World Cruise - Day 62 - Mar 14 - Hiroshima, Japan

Entrance over the mountains surrounding Hiroshima Bay produced some interesting sunrise shots.  Here are my two favorites:

I like how I was able to get all five boats in the frame as the sun peeked over the mountain and how the sun’s rays shone down the side of the mountain.  Also notice what looks like floating logs in the water.  I think they may be fish farms?

This was my other favorite photo.  I was able to get the boat going through the reflection of the sun on the water.

Today we are heading off on the tram to the Peace Memorial Park, then taking the ferry to Shrine Island (Miyajima Island) to see Itsukushima Shrine.

This is a monument right next to our pier:

As we got off the ship, Chelsea, one of the cruise staff (and a fellow Zumba participant) was dressed for pics at the end of the doc:

Hiroshima has an population of about 1.1 million and the metropolitan area has about 2 million.  At the time the atomic bomb was dropped in 1945, the population was approximately 350,000.  The bomb killed an estimated 80,000 people, with an estimated 10,000-60,000 additional people dying by the end of the year.  The general impression for most Westerners of Hiroshima is that the entire city was essentially destroyed.  While that is correct for the epicenter of the bomb, further out areas were not as badly affected (one sign even noted that they had tram service back within a week in some outlying parts of the city).  In the central city itself, about 70% of the buildings were completely destroyed and another 7% severely damaged.  Hiroshima has very few signs left of its deadly past.  It looks like other modern Japanese cities, with almost all of the buildings post-WWII.  The only building left standing as a memorial to the atomic bomb is the Atomic Bomb Dome:

That building was formerly known as Hiroshima Commercial Museum and this is what it looked like before the atomic bomb.

Here is a similar picture across the river as it exists today:

Across the river from Atomic Bomb Dome is Peace Memorial Park.  The Children’s Peace Monument is a memorial to a girl who died at age 12 of leukemia, 10 years after the atomic bomb:

According to a Japanese custom, if you fold 1,000 paper cranes, you get your wish.  Her wish was to live.  She died before she was able to finish folding the 1,000 cranes, so her classmates finished the task.  Others continue to this day, and approximately 10 million paper cranes are sent here from all over the world:

We also rang the bell that you are supposed to ring if you do not want any more war:

There was a nearby restroom facility that is kinda “open air”—see what I mean?

Yes, it was really exposed to the outside.  And yes, I did ask Dennis for his permission to post the pic to the blog.  Welcome to Japan.  Of the three toilets in the back, the one on the right is a western style toilet, the other two are squatters.

This is the view of Peace Memorial Museum behind Peace Memorial Hall:

Peace Memorial Hall:

We took the tram to Hiroden-miyajima-guchi:

While we were on the tram, there were several stops where people got on and the tram was full, so I gave up my seat to elderly Japanese women, who politely bowed, expressing their thanks.  Then one of the ladies for whom I had given up my seat tugged on my jacket as she got up at a later stop, then bowed again in thanks.  Then I gave up my seat for another elderly lady, but a couple stops later, she gave up her seat for a younger lady, which didn’t make sense to me at first, but then I noticed that she was pregnant.  On a later stop, I also saw an elderly lady give up her seat for an elderly man that was walking with a cane.  In each case when someone gave up their seat, the other person bowed and the person who gave up the seat bowed back.  Interesting how the hierarchy works as far as who is most in need of a seat.

We then took the ferry to Miyajima Island to see Itsukushima Shrine and O-Torii Gate, which “floats” in the water:

As we came onto the island, there were several deer roaming around, so we got a pic of Roberta, Krissie and Sarah with one of the deer:

I also got this pic of a doe cleaning her fawn:

I got this pic of some Japanese school kids coming home from school (notice two of them wearing facemasks, very common in Japan):

Here is a picture of O-Torii gate from Miyajima Island:

This is the classic photo of O-Torii gate from the end of the pier in front of Itsukushima Shrine:

This is a pic of Roberta, Krissie, Sara, Ken and Dennis in front of Itsukushima Shrine:

Krissie and I stopped to get lunch at a traditional Japanese restaurant where we had beef and noodles, which was essentially a large bowl of beef broth and Japanese noodles with strips of beef, lettuce and other greens and a very wonderful flavor:

I liked that we got to sit on the floor with our shoes off.

After lunch, we went to Daishoin Temple, which is part of the way up the mountain toward Misen (the top of the mountain):

This is looking back toward the water with the O-Torii Gate in the background:

This is the inside of one of the Buddhist temples:

Looking up toward Daishon Temple:

As you walk up the steps, there are spinning scrolls along the middle of the steps that people spin as they walk, although I don’t know why:

View of the O-Torii Gate as we walked back toward the ferry:

Five-storied pagoda in the background:

Up close view of five-storied pagoda:

We then took a ferry back directly to Hiroshima port in a fast ferry that looked like this one (I took this pic as we were pulling out of Hiroshima Bay):

Hiroshima was better than I thought it would be.  Although I was admittedly bothered by the way the Museum portrayed the Americans as being the aggressor nation in WWII.  In the section titled “Why was the atomic bomb dropped?” it gave several reasons, none of which took any personal responsibility upon Japan for initially declaring war against the U.S. or Pearl Harbor or Batan Death March or the Japanese war atrocities or any of that portion of history.  The Potsdam Treat was mentioned (our request for Japan to unconditionally surrender two weeks before the bomb was dropped on Hiroshima), but it was noted that it did not make mention of any continuance of the emperor and we did not mention that we had an atomic weapon (although we did drop leaflets three days before we dropped the bomb, yet they were virtually ignored by the locals and there was no mention of it at the Museum).  Yet Japan still failed to surrender even after Hiroshima and it was not until after Nagasaki that Japan finally surrendered (unconditionally, BTW).  No mention also that Japan had an atomic bomb program going on concurrently and was seeking to develop its own atomic weapons.  Germany as well.  No doubt that Germany or Japan would have used the technology, had they possessed it first.

But yes, we can all agree that we all no more nuclear bombs and no more war.  Thy kingdom come.  OK, I will stop now…

Tonight’s entertainment was Paul Baker:

Paul does musical theater mainly on the West End of London.  He did songs from West Side Story, Starlight Express, Les Miserables and Phantom of the Opera, among others.  Great show!

Tomorrow is Busan (a/k/a Pusan), South Korea.  It seems strange that we will be arriving in a completely different country tomorrow morning, but we are essentially near the southwest end of Honshu (the Japanese mainland) and at one of the closest points to the Korean peninsula and Busan is on the southeast corner of the Korean peninsula.  So we cross the Sea of Japan tonight to arrive in South Korea tomorrow morning.