Hiroshima

HIROSHIMA I am sure everyone has heard of Hiroshima as the place where the Atomic Bomb went off in August 1945, ending WW2. On a visit to Japan I felt I had to go and see for myself what Hiroshima is like. We travelled by ferry from Shikoku island but you can also travel by train from Tokyo or wherever you happen to be staying. Hiroshima is a modern city, its towering buildings are a delight to wander around. Sixteen storeys is nothing for a department store here! There are speciality shops, specialising in Japanese souvenirs and there are three major shopping centres so if you are a shopaholic you are sure to enjoy ...

Hiroshima is the capital city of the Hiroshima Prefecture (Hiroshima-ken) which is in western Honshu. This Japanese city is famous for having suffered the first atomic bomb on 6 August 1945. Since then it has become a city devoted to peace and the eradication of all forms of mass destruction. More personally for me it is the city where my old housemate teaches English to Japanese school children. This year I visited Japan and stayed with my friend in Kure, a small town forty minutes by bus or train from Hiroshima. For me Hiroshima was my impression of Japan, so I will talk a little about Japan in general too. (So be warned, its quite a long one!) GETTING ...

Hiroshima is perhaps most famous because it was the first place that an Atomic Bomb was dropped on a civilian population ever. The bomb, sickly named Little Boy, was dropped on August 6th, 1945 at 8:45 in the morning, by the American Bomber, Enola Gay (Cue crap 80's pop song by OMD). This exploded 580 meters above the city and releasing the equivalent of 15,000 tones of TNT. This killed over 140,000 people, most instantly however other did die of cancers or radiation sickness within a year of the bomb exploding. I visited Hiroshima, as I wanted to find out the truth about what happened that day and also I wanted to see what the city was like ...