Hiroshima – Japan’s Peace Prefecture

Hiroshima is best remembered as the first city targeted by a nuclear weapon when the United States Army Air Forces (USAAF) dropped the atomic bomb “Little Boy” on the city at 8:15 a.m. on August 6, 1945. Most of the city was destroyed, and by the end of the year 90,000–166,000 people had died as a result of the blast and its effects.

In December 1996 at UNESCO’s 20th World Heritage Committee Convention in Merida, the Atomic Bomb Dome was listed as a World Heritage site being a building that communicates the total devastation caused by nuclear weapons. The erstwhile Atomic Bomb Dome was constructed in 1915 and in 1933 was named as the “Hiroshima Prefectural Industrial Promotion Hall”. A-bomb Dome – presently as a remaining landmark of the devastation caused at the time of bombing, is a symbol for the motto “No More Hiroshimas”. Spanning the generations it has become a symbol for the abolition of nuclear weapons and the importance of lasting peace throughout the world.

• Children’s Peace Monument
• Hiroshima Peace Memorial
• The Atomic Bomb Dome

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Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park, feels somewhat like a green island in the middle of the city. A tranquil spot covering over 120,000 square meters, it serves to memorialize the great many lives lost in the world’s first nuclear attack, while making use of nature to reaffirm the preciousness of all life. Since being rebuilt after the war, Hiroshima has become the largest city in the Chūgoku region of western Honshu, the largest island of Japan.

Be the change that you wish to see in the world.

In short, Japan does not want to remilitarize and it has the pieces in place to ensure that. That alone is enough to indicate that Japan is a different country from the one that set East Asia ablaze over seventy years ago. Ian Buruma put it best: “Human nature has not changed but politics have…those who choose to ignore that, and instead look for national marks of Cain, have learned nothing from the past.”.