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in the last picture, on the left you cann see the remains of a rather significant structure. it was a building constructed in 1915. the explosion of the bomb was am airburst, and 'preserved' the building in a somewhat recognizable form.
it still exists, pretty much as seen. i was stationed in Iwakuni Japan in 1974-1975 while i was in the Marines. i spent my weekends at either the Itsukushima Shrine on Miyajima-cho, or at Hiroshima.
there was a fence around the buildings and the rubble that they kept in place. in 1975 i could still see the shadows of people, plants, animals and objects burned into the concrete.
the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park is a complex that includes other features: a multistory museum with material from the time, pools, fountains, statuary memorializing the children, parents and civilians killed, and more. offerings for the souls of the departed are regularly made by visitors, as well as relatives.
scuttlebutt was that the city was pretty much rebuilt around this building, which we called the 'A-Bomb Dome' at the time. n the time since i left, both it and Itsukushima have become World Heritage Sites under the auspices of the United Nations.
to see what a difference a few years make, and the resilience of the Japanese people, please check the pix (and history) at
http://en.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost
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