In February I visited Hiroshima for four days. I spent one crisp day visiting the Hiroshima Peace Park, which was constructed not very far from Ground Zero -- the point right below the A-bomb blast. It was a moving and sobering experience. While I had read John Hersey's classic, Hiroshima, and Richard Rhodes' The Making of the Atomic Bomb, seeing the remains of buildings and even trees that survived the blast made the bombing more visceral. The museum also has many exhibits showing how the blast melted glass water bottles and distorted steel girders, and how the people suffered from the effects.
One thing I did not know before: there were a few thousand teenage volunteers in Hiroshima on that day from other parts of Japan. They were there doing community service, helping to pull down buildings to create fire breaks in case of conventional bombing. Most if not all of them were vaporized when the bomb detonated.
This is the A-bomb Dome building. It's all that remains of a large municipal exhibition hall.
One of the famous residents of Hiroshima was a teenage girl, Sadako Sasaki, who contracted leukemia as a result of the A-bomb radiation. Hoping to stay alive, she decided to fold 1,000 paper cranes for good fortune. Sadly, she died at a very young age. This is the Children's Memorial, with a young girl and an origami crane atop it.
There is an eternal flame burning near the cenotaph memorializing the hundreds of thousands of victims of the bomb. I tried to capture the refraction of the hot air with these shots.
A young couple stands by the cenotaph.
Looking at the mall from the steps of the museum.
Finally, another shot of the A-bomb dome, with some post-processing. I'll upload more photos of Japan over the next few days. Hope you like them!