Hiroshima

On our way back from Miyajima, Fudge, Becky and I stopped in Hiroshima, which is now a pretty big city of about a million people, to visit the main tourist draw - the Peace Memorial Park and its museum.
The museum, although very sad, was full of very interesting information, not only about the bombing of Hiroshima on August 6, 1945, but also about the development of atomic weapons in general. It discussed the problems experienced by survivors of the bombing in very graphic detail. It also mentioned that most of the casualties were women and children, as well as Korean slave labourers who had been brought over to help in the war effort.
I liked that the museum was quite objective in its treatment of the bombing - rather than pointing fingers at who was to blame, it simply laid out what happened. It was also nice that every exhibit was in both Japanese and English. Most major tourist draws in Japan will have some token English, but they don't give you a real understanding of what you are looking at. And the price was great, too - only 50 yen (50 cents).
The top picture is the A-bomb Dome, which was almost directly below the bomb when it exploded, but somehow miraculously survived even though almost everything around it was completely obliterated.
This bottom picture is the Children's Peace Memorial, which was inspired by a girl named Sadako who developed leukemia after the bombing. While in the hospital she decided to fold 1000 origami cranes, a symbol of longevity and happiness in Japan, believing if she achieved her goal, she would recover. Unfortunately, she died before reaching the goal, but her classmates folded the rest. Ever since, children from throughout Japan have folded tens of thousands of paper cranes in her honour and they are displayed at this Memorial.