(27)Did anything in Peace Memorial Park survive the atomic bombing?

Four things survive, including the A-bomb Dome

The gravestone remains on the ground level that existed before the atomic bomb was dropped.

There are many monuments and statues in the city of Hiroshima, such as the Cenotaph for the A-bomb Victims located in Peace Memorial Park, but most of these were erected after the bombing. I visited Yoshiho Muranaka, 82, member of a citizens' group working for the preservation of the A-bomb monuments.

Mr. Muranaka told me that four things in the area of Peace Memorial Park survived the bombing: (1) A-bomb Dome; (2) the Aioi Bridge Monument near A-bomb Dome; (3) the Rest House; and (4) a gravestone south of the Memorial Mound.

A-bomb Dome is the ruins of the former Hiroshima Prefectural Industrial Promotion Hall. The Aioi Bridge Monument was raised in 1940 to commemorate the former Aioi Bridge. And the current Rest House was known before as the "Fuel Hall," the office of the Prefectural Fuel Rationing Union.

The gravestone of Kunai Okamoto, a senior statesman of the Asano Clan (once the ruling body of Hiroshima), was located in a cemetery on the grounds of the former site of Jisenji Temple. Although the top part of the gravestone was blown down by the blast, the marker has been preserved in the park.

According to Senjun Kajiyama, 85, of Jisenji Temple, there were about 800 gravestones in the cemetery at that time. However, in order to construct Peace Memorial Park, a project initiated in 1950, all the houses and temples in the area had to move to other locations. Jisenji Temple decided to move all the graves, too, but the people in charge of developing the park asked to preserve Mr. Okamoto's gravestone as a reminder of the devastation caused by the atomic bomb. Mr. Kajiyama said that the first director of Peace Memorial Museum, Shogo Nagaoka, also appealed to the temple to the preserve this gravestone in the park.

It seems strange, though, that only this one gravestone was left behind. But by visiting the site, I learned more about its history.

I discovered that the gravestone stands in a spot that is 40-80 centimeters lower than the ground level of the park, as if that spot alone had been dug deeper. However, according to city officials, this spot represents the original ground level of the area before the bombing. In other words, the rest of the area was covered with a layer of dirt, which raised the ground level of the park.

In 2000, in order to construct the Hiroshima National Peace Memorial Hall for the Atomic Bomb Victims, a geological survey was conducted and a layer containing roof tiles and other artifacts from the bombing was discovered. Norioki Ishimaru, 67, a professor at Hiroshima International University and an expert on city planning, said that the ground level of the park was raised about 15-40 centimeters, depending on the area. Under this top layer, rubble from around the city is buried in a layer of about 50 centimeters.

Professor Ishimaru believes that a layer of dirt was spread on top of the park to make the bumpy surface flat. Another likely reason for raising the ground level was to prevent flooding, which Hiroshima often experienced at that time.

Under the layer of rubble, the surface of the ground that was burnt by the atomic bomb on August 6 still remains. Mr. Muranaka commented, "Today it's hard to find traces of that time, but we should never forget that many people once lived in this area and they were killed here in an instant." (Toshiko Bajo,staff writer)