Our last stop in Japan was in Hiroshima. We were hoping to arrive there earlier, but sadly enough Himeji Castle (previous post) was very busy and coming and going was very slow, so we arrived after dark. We went for a walk that evening to see the sights. Unfortunately the museum was closed.
When we arrived at the sight of the A-Bomb dome it was really strange to have in front of us a picture of what we had seen in so many history books growing up.
We walked around the Memorial Peace park and observed all of the memorials. One that we found to be particularly interesting was the Children's Peace Monument, dedicated to children who were killed or whose lives were effected by the bombing on August 6, 1945.
We were reminded of the story of Sadako Sasaki, a young girl who suffered from the radiation of the bombing. She believed that if she folded 1000 paper cranes a wish would be granted to her and that was that she could be made well. The story goes, that she was too weak to complete all of the cranes, so her classmates completed the rest after her death and she was buried with them.
To this day, children all over the world fold paper cranes and send them to Hirshima with dreams of world peace. The cranes are placed on display by the memorial. There were thousands upon thousands of cranes of all sizes and colors.
It was a quick but memorable stop in Hiroshima, but one that we were glad to have made.
