Hiroshima Bombing

Peace Memorial Park

Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park is a memorial park in the centre of Hiroshima , Japan.

It is dedicated to the legacy of

Hiroshima as the first city in the

world to suffer a nuclear attack, and to the memories of the bomb's direct

and indirect victims (of whom there

may have been as many as 140,000).

The location of Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park was once the city’s busiest downtown commercial and residential district. The park

was built on open field that was created by the explosion. Today there are a number of memorials and monuments, museums, and

lecture halls, which draw over a million visitors annually. The annual 6 August Peace Memorial Ceremony, which is sponsored by

the city of Hiroshima, is also held in the park. The purpose

of the Peace Memorial Park is to not only

Memorialize the victims, but also to

establish the memory of Nuclear horrors and

Advocate world peace.

The A-Bomb Dome is the skeletal ruins of the former Industrial Promotion Hall. It is the building closest to the hypocentre of the nuclear bomb that remained at least

partially standing. It was left how it was after the bombing in memory of the casualties.

The Children’s Peace Monument is a statue dedicated to the memory of the children who died as a result of the bombing. The statue is of a girl with outstretched arms with a folded paper crane rising above her. The statue is based on the true story of Sadako Sasaki, a young girl who died from radiation from the bomb. She believed that if she folded 1,000 paper cranes she would be cured. To this day, people (mostly children) from around the world fold cranes and send them to Hiroshima where they are placed near the statue. The statue has a continuously replenished collection of folded cranes nearby.

Every year on 6 August, "A-bomb Day," the City of

Hiroshima holds the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Ceremony to

console the victims of the atomic bombs and to pray for the realisation of lasting world peace. The ceremony is held in

the morning from 8:00, with many citizens including the

families of the deceased. During the ceremony, A one-minute silence is observed at 8:15 for the victims, at the time of the

atomic bomb's explosion.

The Peace Flame is another monument to the victims of the bomb that destroyed Hiroshima, but it has an additional symbolic purpose. The flame has burned continuously since it was lit in 1964, and will remain lit until all nuclear bombs on the planet are destroyed and

the planet is free from the threat of nuclear annihilation.