Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park Audio Guide

Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park: what does the audio guide cover?

1. 01

   Welcome to Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park

   Welcome to Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park, in the Naka ward at the center of Hiroshima. Look at the shape of the land and you will understand why people call it a green island. It sits mostly on a narrow stretch between two rivers, and it covers more than 120,000 square meters. It extends southward from the Atomic Bomb Dome, which stands just across the Motoyasu River. The quiet you feel here is a choice the city made. Before 1945 this district was the administrative and commercial heart of Hiroshima. In 1949 the recovering city decided that the ground should become a place of remembrance and contemplation instead of simply being rebuilt. The park lies west of the Kamiyacho and Hatchobori government and business district, so the everyday city is never far from you. Over the next few stops we will look at the Dome, at the Cenotaph and the thinking behind its design, and at the stories of the students who are remembered here. Take your time. This is a place to walk slowly and to listen.

2. 02

   The Dome Across the River

   Begin with the building that gives the whole place its meaning. Across the Motoyasu River stands the Genbaku Dome, and genbaku simply means atomic bomb in Japanese. It was the only structure left standing in the area where the first atomic bomb exploded on August sixth, 1945. Much of the building's exterior was stripped away, but its skeletal frame survived. What you see today is deliberate. Through the efforts of many people, including the city of Hiroshima, the Dome has been preserved in the same state as immediately after the bombing. It is inscribed as a World Heritage property that covers only four tenths of a hectare, and it is designated as a historic site under Japan's 1950 Law for the Protection of Cultural Properties. The Dome is inscribed for what it symbolizes more than for its architecture. A much larger buffer zone, 42.7 hectares, surrounds it and includes the Peace Memorial Park. City planning standards for that zone guide building height, wall colors, materials and advertisement boards, so the setting around the Dome stays worthy of its role as a symbol of peace.

3. 03

   The Cenotaph and Its Sentence

   Walk south into the park and you reach the Cenotaph for the Atomic Bomb Victims, built in 1952. It is also known as the Memorial Monument for Hiroshima, City of Peace, because it was created from a desire to rebuild the city as a place dedicated to peace. It was designed by the architect Kenzo Tange, who also designed the Peace Memorial Museum, and it incorporates designs by the sculptor Isamu Noguchi. The form is a stone chest beneath a great arch that represents a roof, meant to offer shelter for the souls of the dead. One reading says the arch was inspired by haniwa, the clay figures that decorated prehistoric tombs. Another reading notes that the arch echoes the curved magatama bead and the bronze ceremonial bell called a dotaku. Either way, the design reaches back to early Japanese culture. Then there is the inscription. In Japanese it reads: please rest in peace, for we shall not repeat the error. Its author was Tadayoshi Saika, a professor of English literature at Hiroshima University. The Japanese sentence never says who the we is. It can be read as those who dropped the atomic bomb, or as those who pursued aggressive war and brought this fate upon the people of Hiroshima. Many see that ambiguity as a way of honoring the victims without politicizing the sentence.

4. 04

   Students Remembered Here

   Many of the people remembered in this park were very young. During the war, students were mobilized to work in factories and to help with the war effort. In Hiroshima 8,387 students were mobilized, and 6,907 of them were killed in the atomic bombing. A memorial tower for these mobilized students is 12 meters tall and five stories high. It is decorated with the Goddess of Peace and eight doves placed around the tower, and plaques at its sides show the work the students did, from factory labor to sewing to growing more food. The ground you are walking on has its own link to this story. A girls' school lost 676 students in the bombing, and no other Hiroshima school suffered as many fatalities. Many of those students had been deployed on building demolition work around the southern part of where the park now stands. Keep that in mind as you pass the museum, the mound and the other monuments. Alongside the Cenotaph, the park holds the Atomic Bomb Memorial Mound, the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum, the Children's Peace Monument and several sculptures. Each one adds its own voice to the memory of those who were lost.

5. 05

   Before You Head Off

   As you wander on, notice how the park is arranged. The Dome sits at one end, the Cenotaph's arch frames the view in between, and the rivers wrap around both sides. The architect Kenzo Tange designed the Cenotaph and the museum, and you can feel his modern design reaching back toward ancient Japanese forms. If you can, think about the Peace Memorial Ceremony, when masses of people gather around the park every August sixth. Imagine the same ground on that morning, then compare it with the stillness of an ordinary day. The museum, designed by Tange, tells the history of Hiroshima before and after the bombing through pictures, movies and displays. Let your questions lead you there. What did this district look like before it became a park, and what does remembering mean to you as you leave?