Hiroshima...

On day two of our stay in Hiroshima, Shota and I visited the town's Peace Memorial Park. Where many tributes to the many people that lost thier lives to the Atomic Bomb in 1945, have been constructed.

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 

There is also one building, formerly known as the Prefectural Industrial Promotional Hall, now it is known as A-Bomb dome, that is still partially standing.

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***

Later that evening we went for a stroll into the city to see the "Christmas Illumination" (Thats what they call Christmas Lights here), it was an amazing sight! The illuminations were on both sides of the road and continued for about three blocks...

*** Quote taken from; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hiroshima_Peace_Memorial_Park