Hiroshima

 We made our first trip to Hiroshima in October. It is about five hours north of us on the southern part of Honshu. Hiroshima is a beautiful and modern city that has rebuilt its downtown and made a wonderful peace park where the atomic bomb hit in 1945.

Here we are with Genbaku Dome in the background. It is the only building that remained after the bomb. 

We visited the very large and well done museum. One of the things I found most touching were some of Sadako's cranes. Sadako was a girl who was injured at the age of two by the atomic bomb and died when she was twelve from the effects. Before she died, she tried to make 1,000 cranes which the Japanese believe will give you a wish. Her wish was going to be to live. She didn't make it and her classmates finished the 1,000 cranes for her. Now, the crane is the symbol of peace for the park and many paper cranes are sent and brought to both the Hiroshima and Nagasaki peace parks by school children. Below are some cranes in the museum at Hiroshima that were folded by Sadako herself.

A popular children's book here is called Shin's Tricycle. It's a true story written about 3 year old Shin who died in the bombing while riding his tricycle. Here is Wilson with his book and Shin's tricycle behind him. The book is beautifully written and helped us explain to Wilson in as much of a kid-friendly way as possible what happened at the place we were visiting.

After the atomic bomb site, we explored a little more of Hiroshima. Here is Aunt Judy explaining the traditional steps to praying at a shrine.

We walked to Hiroshima Castle, which was a nice little castle with beautiful grounds.

The inside of the castles always have a small museum to view while you are climbing to the top. Hiroshima Castle had some cool samurai outfits for the boys to try on.

We had a great time discovering Hiroshima and will certainly be back!