Kon’nichiwa Nihon

Hiroshima Peace Park is close to the hypocentre of the first atomic bomb.

The Hiroshima Peace Memorial (Genbaku Dome) was the only structure left standing in the area where the first atomic bomb exploded on August 6th 1945. It has been preserved in the same state since. It was the Hiroshima Prefectural Industrial Promotional Hall.

Not only is it a stark and powerful symbol of the most destructive force ever created by humankind; it also expresses the hope for world peace and the ultimate elimination of all nuclear weapons.

The Children's Peace Monument is a monument for peace to commemorate Sadako Sasaki and the thousands of child victims of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima. Sadako Sasaki, a young girl, died of leukemia caused by radiation.

Designed by native artists Kazuo Kikuchi and Kiyoshi Ikebe, the monument was built using money derived from a fund-raising campaign by Japanese school children, including Sadako Sasaki's classmates, with the main statue entitled "Atomic Bomb Children". The statue was unveiled on 5 May 1958, the Japanese Children's Day holiday.

Sadako Sasaki is immortalized at the top of the statue, where she holds a wire crane above her head.

Shortly before she passed, she had a vision to create a thousand cranes. Japanese tradition says that if one creates a thousand cranes, they are granted one wish. Sadako's wish was to have a world without nuclear weapons.

Thousands of origami cranes from all over the world are offered around the monument. They serve as a sign that the children who make them and those who visit the statue desire a world without nuclear war.

By the end of August 1955, Sadako had achieved her 1000-crane goal and continued to fold more cranes. Unfortunately, her wish was not granted and she died of the leukemia on October 25, 1955. Her main cause of death was from the radiation poisoning from the atomic bomb 'Little Boy'.

There is an eternal flame - 'The flame of anti-nuclear desire' will continue to burn until the abolition of nuclear weapons.

I fear it may burn for some time yet…

There is a stone chamber containing a register of all the people who died in the bombing or since as a result of the bombing - >330,000…

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