A Peace Memorial Park where reminders of the horrors of war abound (Photo-essay)

Over the years, I've read more than one account of people having felt emotionally devastated after a visit to Hiroshima's Peace Memorial Park (which invariably includes spending time at the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum is located).  But rather than put off doing so until my final day in the city, I decided to make straight for the museum after checking into the hotel and then going for lunch on the first day of my most recent Japan trip.   

As it turned out though, even while I did end up shedding a few tears in the museum, I actually didn't feel as upset as I thought I would be.  (Put another way: I was no where as traumatized by the experience as I was by viewing Isao Takahata's Grave of the Fireflies).  Maybe it was because I braced myself sufficiently for the horrors that I'd come across at the museum.  

In addition, I reckon that it helped quite a bit to do the reverse of what many folks do: that is, my mother and I went to the museum first, then strolled from there through the Peace Memorial Park to the iconic Genbaku (aka Atomic Bomb) Dome that now serves as a peace memorial and has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1996.  For this way, we saw the horrors of war first, then spent time afterwards in what actually is a peaceful, tranquil space for all of its being home to ample visual tributes to thousands of fallen folk...

The mainly subterranean Hiroshima National Peace 

Memorial Hall for the Atomic Bomb Victims also 

lies within the expansive Peace Memorial Park

 The Genbaku Dome viewed through the saddle-shaped roof of

the Cenotaph for A-bomb Victims where floral tributes are laid

Looking back along the park's central axis at the Flame of Peace,

Cenotaph, and Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum 

The bronze figure of a girl holding a paper crane

stands at the top of the Children's Peace Monument

The Monument in Memory of the Korean Victims of the

A-Bomb, who include a prince of the Korean imperial family

Within this memorial mound has been interred the remains of

around 70,000 victims of the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima

 The former Hiroshima Prefectural Industrial Promotion Hall is 

the only structure left standing in the 2 kilometer central area where 

the atom bomb exploded over Hiroshima on August 8th, 1945

What I would like to think of as warm rays of hope (not reminders of 

destructive heat) shining through what's now a symbol of people's hope 

for world peace and the ultimate elimination of all nuclear weapons