Tuesday, 23 March 2010

Hiroshima - Cranes and Peace

I have only just returned from Hiroshima after spending three glorious days there. (You will be able to read about it and see pictures throughout the week on my travel blog.) I offered to place some paper cranes on the Children's Peace Memorial at the Peace Park and quite a few bloggers took me up on it. You aren't actually allowed to place cranes on the memorial, there are little cubby houses/storage areas for all the cranes that are sent from across the world. I placed all of the cranes in this area.

Below you'll see a video of bits and pieces from visit, specifically the crane I made for St Andrews Primary School in Victoria, Australia. An Australian YA author has links to that school and they are about to study Japan. I was asked to contribute some ideas and came up with this. I didn't take a picture of all the cranes but you'll see what was done with each and every one of them.

It was a truly moving experience.

Peace Memorial Museum from Persnickety on Vimeo.

Some of the images you see in the video ...ordinary household items warped or partially destroyed by the impact, black rain, iron door warped by the heat rays and blast,the tricycle of a three year old boy who dies while riding it in his backyard, the Children's Peace Memorial and lastly, the A-Bomb Dome.

The A-Bomb Dome was the Industry Prefecture Centre in 1945 and it lies very near the impact point. Upon detonation, the heat of the bomb (approximately 2000-3000 degrees) melted the cooper roofing. Every person in the building was killed. The structure remains as a testament to those who died and as a symbol of peace and renewal.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

初次造訪~安安^^........................................

Gerry Bobsien said...

This is lovely. I'm going to show it to our group of 'Little Architects' this wednesday - we will be talking about memorials and the importance of collective memory. Thank-you.

Sarah said...

That must have been an amazing experience - it was humbling just watching the video & it broke my heart to see that tricycle.

Thanks for sharing the video with people like me who will probably never have the opportunity to visit Hiroshima

Mari - Escape In A Book said...

It must have been powerful to visit Hiroshima. To see pieces of every day items melted and burned, it was strong. When I saw the tricycle I hoped that it wasn't in use when the bomb hit. It broke my heart to see that it was.

Thank you so much for sharing this experience with us, Adele!