Hiroshima is a very beautiful city, with multiple rivers running through it down to the Inland Sea. So even when you know what’s coming, it is something of a shock to stroll down to the riverbank and see the A-Bomb dome, preserved exactly as it looked in the aftermath of the bombing on August 6th, 1945. In the neighbouring Peace Park is the Children’s Peace Monument, inspired by a young girl, Sadako Sasaki, who died of leukaemia 10 years after the blast. Also in the park is the Peace Bell, and a Cenotaph with an eternal flame. The Hiroshima Peace Memorial
The Yushukan museum at the Yasukuni shrine provides a particular perspective Japanese military history. We spent a fascinating couple of hours wandering through its martial exhibits. The whole thing certainly starts off on a slightly discordant note, with the locomotive from the slave-labour constructed Thailand-Burma railway proudly displayed in the lobby (see previous post) While we were obviously unable to read what the Japanese language exhibits said, the English counterparts were masterpieces in blame-shifting and outright elision of key events. For example, the Rape of Nanking (the Nanking “Incident” according to the museum) was treated, in approximately 50 words, as a
Model C56 locomotive No. 31, which operated on the Taimen Railway between Thailand and Burma during World War II. This rail line was made (in)famous by The Bridge on the River Kwai.
The Yasukuni-jinja. According to Shinto belief, the souls of all Japanese war dead are enshrined here. (Carrier pigeons are honoured, but not enshrined). A beautiful, peaceful site. Controversial, too. Included in those war dead are hundreds of convicted war criminals, responsible for some of the most appalling atrocities of the Second Sino-Japanese War and World War II. So when politicians come and pay their respects at the shrine (as will likely happen this coming weekend), the Chinese and Koreans are less than impressed…
Art installations from the Mori Art Museum in Roppongi. Top to bottom: 1000 Legs by Kobayashi Fumiko Eurasia (on wall) and Inujima Project (on floor), by Yanagi Yukimori. Eurasia is made of ant farms. Model of the SS Go For Future, by Endo Ichiro; Ichiro is apparently building a sea-worthy version of this scale model.
Architecture of the National Art Centre Tokyo. Very cool.