Walk-Thru Hiroshima Peace Park 80-Years After with JJWalsh

Walk-Thru Hiroshima Peace Park 80-Years After with JJWalsh

Hi, JJ Walsh here. Longtime resident of Hiroshima. Originally from America, from Hawaii. Um, but I’ve learned over many years to really love and respect uh living here in Hiroshima. What an amazing contrast growing up near Pearl Harbor and living most of my life here in Hiroshima. Um, it’s August 3rd. Today I’m doing a walk through of the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park. really the heart of modern Hiroshima City, which has rebranded itself as the city of peace. Uh just in case the live stream quality is not great, on August 6, when I’m trying to reream and share some of the images, sights, and sounds of this amazing commemorations of the 80th year since the bombing of Hiroshima. I’m also doing this recording uh all in one piece as we walk through. Hopefully, you’ll still get the sense of walking through live with me as if we’re doing a guided tour together. Uh, right behind me, I’m standing at the marker. Right above here, 600 m above was where the bomb exploded. Um, so I’ll turn the camera around and show you what we can see around this area. So at the end of this street where is now the event space called gate park that was where the shrine was during the bomb the wartime and completely destroyed and the toy gate was still standing at the end of that street. So you can see the tori gate that survived right here under where the bomb exploded at the end of the street. This is a hospital and it was a hospital at the time. Uh Dr. Shima Shima Hospital, his grandson now runs it. He survived the bombing. He was visiting the rural areas on the day of the bomb. And he had so much survivor guilt um like many survivors did for losing all of his staff, all of his doctors and nurses. Uh you can see more information about the nurses and doctors at Shima Hospital in the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum. Underneath here, it talks about how the heat of the blast was 3,000 to 4,000° of heat in this immediate area. And that’s hotter than the heat of uh lava. So, that’s just an incredible amount of intense heat and strong winds in this immediate blast area. Now, what you can see when you’re walking around Hiroshima City, you can see the entire city center is surrounded by mountains and you can see the mountain range straight ahead beyond the event space there. And that’s something you notice as you walk around all of Hiroshima city center, this ring of mountains. And on many accounts, that’s why Hiroshima was chosen because the mountains would contain the blast for data purposes, but also for maybe compassionate purposes to contain the blast and limit the victims. I love looking at the reflection here of this temple. As we can see the AOM dome in the reflection of the building. It doesn’t seem like it should be reflective. This is one of the closest cemeteries, temple and cemeteries to where the bomb exploded. And unfortunately, a lot of the ashes were lost. And in Japanese culture, they want to keep the ashes of all the ancestors together over the generations. So that was a horrible loss. Plus, a lot of the graves listed as 1945 August 6th are empty. They never found the body. This is a very special gizo. They call it Jizo sun, the honorific gizo. And this gizo is the closest to where the bomb exploded. And you can see the shadows on the face and also the shadows under the gizo which is actually the original stone. And what was exposed to the bombing was bleached white. And you can actually feel how bumpy the stone became because of the intensity of the heat. Can see the picture. of what this area looked like and some of the original tile here. Can hear the summer sound of the cicada, the semi as we walk over to the AAM dome here. The most important, most iconic view of this now called Abum Dome. It was designated World Heritage UNESCO in 1996. And that’s the year that we came to Hiroshima. What a significant year to also be the year two sites in Hiroshima were designated UNESCO World Heritage. So before the UNESCO designation, there was no gate around it. Once it was designated, the gate and alarm system was put in place and support beams were also put inside to preserve it in hopes that it will last for many more generations into the future. It’s such an important building for people to see for themselves and experience by looking the power of the bomb and think if a strong building was impacted like this, what happens to people? There’s always volunteers here who are telling testimony as survivors but also passing on stories of others in the next generation. This is the 80th year so it’s getting more and more difficult for survivors to give testimony and to volunteer themselves especially in this heat. I worry about them looking at the bridge here. This is the tea bridge which was the siding point the bombers were aiming at in 1945 August 6th and the bomb was dropped aiming at this point these two cross bridges from the sky it looks like a tea and the split rivers below but exploded at the marker we saw two blocks away at the opposite side of the river here you can see the clock tower and that chimes every morning at 8:15 and it’s especially important on August 6 when there’s a lot of noise happening and the clock chimes and people are quiet there’s a a minute of silence is one of the most dedicated survivors giving testimony. And he’s here in the Peace Park in this area almost every day talking with visitors in both English and Japanese. There’s so much respect for all the volunteers and local people who so tirelessly every day spend so much effort and share their passion for sharing their stories in hopes that it never happens again and we can learn from the mistakes of the past. I love all the trees as we walk around. All the beautiful trees of Peace Park. But it’s amazing to think that none of the trees in this immediate area grew back within a year. There are 150 designated Abomb survivor trees, but none of them are in this immediate area. The closest one is just on the other side of the river. But the fact that all of these trees were donated by people around Japan and planted here to bring hope and bring that connection to nature so you can find hope back is such a beautiful part of the story of rebuilding this area as well. [Music] When we come here on August 6th, we’ll look down at this river and see thousands of floating lanterns. And on the colorful washi Japanese paper, people will have written their stories of hope for peace, sadness for loss, personal loss, or the loss of so many people who died here. They say more than 70,000 people were killed instantly. Look at this bird flying toward us. Amazing. I love that. And by the end of 1945, 140,000 people had died because of the bombing. And every year they add more names. That names, the books of names are written on the senotap underneath the senotap. So, we’ll see that in a minute or two when we’re walking through the Peace Park. [Music] This building on the left is also an Abomb survivor building. And one person actually survived in this building. He was having a meeting with everyone on the top floor and he forgot some paperwork and the secretary looked busy as the story goes and so he himself went down to the basement and was looking for paperwork and because he was under so much concrete he survived and no one else did. So he lived with a lot of survivor guilt like so many survivors, but he dedicated his life to telling his testimony and he lived till almost 90. He was in his mid4s at the time. Here’s what the building looked like before the bombing and after. Before the war, it was a kimono shop. If you go to the top floor, you can see what the area looked like before the bombing. And you can very clearly see the tea bridge in that diagram at the top, the tea bridge and the split rivers. And that’s what the pilots were aiming at. And it exploded two blocks over 600 m in the sky. Now you can go down and see where the survivor survived under all the concrete and read his story. You can see this a bomb survivor piano on the second floor in the cafe and you can go to the top and see images of what the area looked like before the bombing. It was a thriving neighborhood. It was restaurants, houses, schools, temples. [Music] It was a thriving city center. A lot of survivors describe coming to this area with excitement as a really fun, beautiful, vibrant place to come. But as it was completely destroyed and it is one island, it made sense to repurpose this island as the main peace memorial park area. What we’re looking at now is referred to as the peace line. So over these beautiful roses that I can smell right now, they’re still in bloom. We can see the Abomb Dome structure and then the children’s monument next to us. And then turning the other way, we can see the Peace Flame, the Senate, and the Museum all in the same line. This is the children’s monument in honor of all the children who died in connection with the bombing. But they stay at the top and it was inspired by a young girl named Sadako Sasaki. And she was 2 years old at the time of the blast. She seemed okay. She was very active at school, very sporty. But 10 years later, like so many children, she developed leukemia and went to hospital. And everyone was folding cranes for her to get better. In Japanese culture, if you fold a thousand cranes, you get a special wish. She was also folding cranes, but giving them away. You can come and ring the bell. And the bell itself looks like a crane as well. And it’s very loud. The gong is supposed to sound like a school bell. And here are some of the beautiful cranes. Many people bring them in these strands of 1000 with messages of peace, the name of the school when they came. And hundreds of thousands of cranes are brought every year and dedicated to peace in the park. And the ones they can’t keep here anymore, they um either repurpose, reuse the paper into uh journals and stationery and postcards or greeting cards or they take them to the sacred island of Miaima where they are burned in a sacred fire. But local potters reuse the ash and use it in their glaze. The official powder for its Kushima ginger, its Kushima shrine, reuses the ash from da showing after the sacred fire and uses it in a beautiful candle holder that diffuses the light so beautifully. And that candle holder was given to all the leaders of the world who came for the G7 two years ago. And President Zalinski was also given one. This area they leave open to allow the groups that come a place to hang it like this group is doing. So they work together as an organization or school to fold all these beautiful cranes and then when they come they usually have a song or a poem and hang their cranes. They work so hard to create to represent their group and they have messages of hope and peace on them. This is from a a high school Hiroshima City High School, Junior High School and High School along the side here. Um they have extra exhibits showing newspapers and information. Uh they always do this before the commemorations every August 6th to have extra exhibits and extra information. This is such a good idea because a lot of people want to have the information about what happened here, but often inside the museum is too crowded. Um, it’s become so popular. It’s something everyone wants to do. So, spreading out the exhibits and spreading out the crowds is such a wonderful strategy to overcome that over tourism crowded feeling and let people take the information in for themselves. It has um more impact and uh more lasting impression. Here we’re walking up to the peace flame. It’s not called an internal flame because the designers of the peace park say they want to turn it off when there’s no more war and there’s no more nuclear weapons. So, I was here in May when Patty Smith and one of our local AAM survivors, Ko Ogura, who’s 88, she was 8 years old when she survived the blast, and she actually lives in the neighborhood I live now. So, her story always deeply impacts me. Um, but they were together stood at the senotap and Patty Smith was laying a wreath of flowers and Ko Ugura told her the story of the peace flame and how the designers of the peace park they want to turn this flame off when there’s no more war there’s no more nuclear weapons and Patty Smith turned to Ko Ogura and said Ko I hope that happens really soon. And it just really impressed me. My heart lifted and I thought, “Right on, Patty.” I love that optimism because too many of us are worried that we can never turn off the flames. I love seeing this reflection that Senate have reflected in the pool below. Such a beautiful arch, but with the reflection, it becomes a circle. Now, this arch dates, the design dates back 3,000 years to an ancient burial design, and it is the design of Isamu Noguchi. Now, Isam Noguchi is famous Japanese architect, Japanese American architect and designer. and his design for the entire peace park was not chosen. The entire peace park was designed by Kenzo Tang. But Kenzo Tang was respected uh Isamoguchi so much that he chose the center of the park design as Isamunoguchi’s design. And Isamu Noguchi also designed the bridges at the end of Peace Park. This is where locals come and light incense. It’s also where people come and give flowers and pray for peace and pay respects for those who died, but also to make a wish and hope for peace. Inside the ceme there is a stone and under the stone is where they have hundreds of books with the names of everyone who died in connection with the bomb on August 6th, 1945. So every year more names are added. [Music] Even if they die 80 years later, if they were registered as being here on August 6th, 1945, their names are added. There are not only Japanese names, there’s also American names, there’s also Korean names. And every year they take out the books and they write more names if people have died within the last year. They added more than 5,000 names last year and there were more than 340,000 names in total. So this year it’ll be interesting and important to think about the number of names that are written and how many are added in this 80th year. [Music] You can see all of the tents being set up to make shade for people who will be sat watching the event here on August 6. And this area in front of the senate half is where they will make the event stage and they have politicians making speeches, [Music] survivors still giving testimony and young elementary school kids who are chosen to talk about their vision of future peace. And it’s when the children talk with such innocence and conviction that it usually impacts people quite strongly. And one of the elementary school kids is 12 this year and he’s been volunteering as a guide in the park since he was seven. I read about him in the Japan Times today and earlier when I was practicing for the live stream today, I had the chance to meet him and he speaks English well and he volunteers to tell visitors to the park a bit about his grandmother’s story. And it’s especially powerful this year because he is 12 and his grandmother was 12 when she survived the nuclear attack on Hiroshima city in 1945. So it’s so important to have this lasting legacy of younger generation who is continuing to tell these stories which are such an important part of keeping the hope alive that we will never have a nuclear attack on people again. This whole area on August 6 will have lots of mist machines around it. Uh people under the shade of the museum will be passing out cold towels and cold water. You can refill your bottles here. And this was the first building that Kenzo Tang built when they were rebuilding the city. And most of the rebuilding of the city and the park was funded by local people. Hidoshima people apparently paid for 80% of all the rebuilding. And so this fountain here is in tribute and honor uh for Hiroshima Bank because keeping the banks here was such an important part of the rebuilding of the city. Such a beautiful fountain. And there’s uh the gates of peace on the other side. You can walk through and it has the words written peace in all the languages of the world. even braille. So, I’ll sign off now, but thank you for joining. It was wonderful to do this little loop on August 3rd because on August 6th, because of security, there’ll be a lot of areas that are blocked off and difficult to walk through. Um, so it’s a lot easier today on August 3rd to be able to walk through the route. Um, but I’ll try to capture some video and live stream on the 6 just so that you can have a bit of the atmosphere and the sights and sound on the day. This is such an important event in Hiroshima for the 80th commemorations of the bombing in 2025 August 6, 80 years after the bombing of August 6, 1945. And 3 days after I’ll again be in Nagasaki to help document and share images, sites, and sounds from Nagasaki on August 9th. And it’s actually the first time I’ll be going to Nagasaki on their uh peace day. So, it’s a very impactful for me as well as a longtime Hiroshima resident. [Music] I will turn the camera around and finish as we walk toward uh the Ivam. Thank you so much for joining. See you again next time. Take care. Peace out, folks. Come on. [Music] Come on.

Join me for a short walk -thru of Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park – the closest to where the nuclear bomb exploded on August 6, 1945
See how on August 3rd 2025 as they are getting the PEACE CITY ready before the barricades go up for the 6th, 80th anniversary of the nuclear attack on Hiroshima.
#hiroshima80 #peacepark #japan #guidedtour #hiroshima #nomorehiroshima #nonukes