{"id":7,"featured":0,"modified":"2023-06-20 03:26:31","latitude":34.3918120999999956666215439327061176300048828125,"longitude":132.452104783408913135644979774951934814453125,"title":"Genbaku Dome","address":"1-10 \u014ctemachi, Naka Ward, Hiroshima, 730-0051, Japan","thumbnail":"https:\/\/www.worldwariimonuments.org\/files\/square_thumbnails\/a8ae242d586b43183ea638e2b78f77d5.jpg","creator":["Carys Caffarel"],"description":"Ruins tell an intriguing story of what a society deems worth remembering or what deserves to be forgotten. A unique characteristic of ruins is that they are not \u201cpassive remains but active cultural agents that transverse their status of remaining parts of a lost whole and accrue an identity of their own as ruins; they become monuments qua ruins and not just ruins of monuments.\u201d In the years after the post atomic bomb drop, the identity of the Genbaku Dome has transformed from one of intense pain and suffering into a noteworthy beacon of peace on a global scale. What makes the ruins of the former Promotion Hall particularly distinctive is that Japan, specifically Hiroshima and Nagasaki, are the only victims of nuclear warfare so no other structure in the world can compare in terms of having such global significance and eventual societal inclusion.
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\r\nThe original domed building was built in 1915 by Czech architect Jan Letzel and is located 260 meters away from Aioi Bridge (the original target of the atomic bomb \u201cLittle Boy\u201d) in the once bustling military city of Hiroshima. Thanks to Letzel\u2019s use of steel and stone construction, the former Promotion Hall was one of a few structures left standing near the bomb\u2019s hypocenter (the building stood 160 meters from the blast site). When observing the ruins that are now the focal point of a staggering Memorial Peace Park, onlookers are met with a stark image of seemingly paradoxical origin, destruction framed by revival. The message of this scene is that remembering how completely the city was destroyed enables us to fully appreciate the miracle of Hiroshima\u2019s rebirth. The notability of this dilapidated structure has carried on through time except in the present day, the building has taken on an entirely new meaning than that of utter destruction.
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\r\nThe concrete ruin itself \u201cperforms a visualization of different forms of mourning: we mourn loss, death, decay and destruction; humanity\u2019s futile and successful attempts to master nature; and nature\u2019s indifference to humans and their cruelty against one another\u201d. The ruins of the Genbaku Dome are a physical representation of what happened to the city and the destructive capabilities of human versus human violence. The aftermath of such immediate and total devastation is that the urge to mourn is in direct competition everywhere with the urge to forget, creating the dilemma of whether to leave or remove one of the few physical reminders remaining from that infamous day. What was once a martial city held firm in their military prowess, was reduced to nothing more than the apocalyptic, scorched traces of a former life. Hiroshima was much like the solid bronze dome of the original Promotion Hall, once supported by sturdy walls of brick and stone, extirpated within minutes.
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\r\nSurvivors had mixed emotions when reminiscing about the Genbaku Dome as it represented the loss of everything they once knew. Two-thirds of the population were in favor of its preservation, and one-third preferred its removal. The preservation of the Atomic Bomb Dome remained a contested issue well into the 1960s dividing Hiroshima\u2019s citizens into two camps: those who wanted the site gone because it either brought up painful memories or the location right in the city-center seemed too valuable to be wasted on a ruin, and those who regarded the dome as a persuasive warning against nuclear warfare and as a crowd-puller for visitors to Hiroshima.
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\r\nIn an interview with atomic bomb survivor, Koji Numata, when asked about his thoughts on the dome, he responded with \u201cI don\u2019t want to remember anything (on August 6th). I want to forget it all. When that scene comes back to my head it makes me sick. I want to forget it.\u201d Survivors who experienced the bomb instinctively wanted the ruins torn down almost like a defense mechanism. Citizens of Hiroshima were too busy reeling from shock, trying to gather up the remnants from their lives and did not even consider commemoration until years later. At that specific moment in time, the ruins of the Prefecture Industrial Promotion Hall were just that, ruins. A crippling reminder that needed to be removed from the landscape of the throttled, ash covered city so that eventually she could be reborn.","sponsor":"","subtitle":"","accessinfo":"","lede":"Memory is showcased in a myriad of ways within a society and that collective memory is then given a physical representation by way of a memorial, through an institution of living memory, or ruins that have survived the ravages of time. The same can be said when analyzing a war memorial, \u201cwhether a statue, a place, a building, or a combination of these and other elements, we see a social and physical arrangement of space and artifacts to keep alive the memories of persons who participated in or are affected by war\u201d. This such relationship between space and memory is complex but can be used to explain why Hiroshima chose to preserve the remains of the Genbaku Dome and how the decaying building became such an integral part of present day society.","website":"Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum<\/a>","related_resources":["Keith Lowe, Prisoners of History: What Monuments to the Second World War Tell Us about Our History and Ourselves<\/a>, 265. William Collins, 2020.","Lisa Yoneyama, Hiroshima Traces: Time, Space, and the Dialectics of Memory<\/a>. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1999.","UNESCO World Heritage Centre, \u201cHiroshima Peace Memorial (Genbaku Dome).\u201d UNESCO World Heritage Centre.<\/a> Accessed February 18, 2021.<\/a><\/span>","

Gabriel Moshenska,<\/span>\u00a0\"Charred Churches or Iron Harvests? <\/a><\/span>Counter-monumentality and the commemoration of the London Blitz<\/span> \", 13. <\/span>Journal of Social Archeology<\/span><\/i>, 2010<\/span>.<\/span><\/a><\/p>","Jazzy Jas, \u201cMonuments in Ruins, Ruins as Monument Evaluation, Protection, Enhancement & Management.\u201d Training Heritage Leaders, January 7, 2018.<\/a>"],"files":{"https:\/\/www.worldwariimonuments.org\/files\/fullsize\/a8ae242d586b43183ea638e2b78f77d5.jpg":{"id":85,"mime-type":"image\/jpeg","title":"Genbaku Dome - 1945","thumbnail":"https:\/\/www.worldwariimonuments.org\/files\/square_thumbnails\/a8ae242d586b43183ea638e2b78f77d5.jpg","description":"An allied correspondent stands before the shell of a building that once was a movie theater in Hiroshima a little more than a month after the bombing. | Associated Press<\/a>
\/Permalink<\/a> | Stanley Troutman "},"https:\/\/www.worldwariimonuments.org\/files\/fullsize\/d6819baf2bd5510674ceaea4140ac513.jpg":{"id":20,"mime-type":"image\/jpeg","title":"Side View of the Hiroshima Peace Memorial","thumbnail":"https:\/\/www.worldwariimonuments.org\/files\/square_thumbnails\/d6819baf2bd5510674ceaea4140ac513.jpg","description":"[AFTER]<\/strong> Side view of the A-Bomb Dome (formally known as the Hiroshima Prefectural Industrial Promotion Hall) located 160 meters (525 feet) from the atomic hypocenter. | Wikimedia: Genbaku Dome<\/a>
\/Permalink<\/a> | Taken by Aiden"},"https:\/\/www.worldwariimonuments.org\/files\/fullsize\/178fbc6a04f9a327dbfcbe6539001891.jpg":{"id":86,"mime-type":"image\/jpeg","title":"Before and After Images of Genbaku Dome","thumbnail":"https:\/\/www.worldwariimonuments.org\/files\/square_thumbnails\/178fbc6a04f9a327dbfcbe6539001891.jpg","description":"These unusual before-and-after images come from the Report of the Joint Commission for the Investigation of the Effects of the Atomic Bomb on Japan, Volume I, \u201cMedical Effects of Atomic Bombs,\u201d NP-3036 (April 1951). I apologize for the poor image quality. I thought that even so they provide striking contrasts, and are much more easy to grasp that the familiar \u201cview from above\u201d photographs. This one is of the Hiroshima Commercial Museum, only 300 meters from Ground Zero, and now known as the famous \u201cGenbaku dome.\u201d The photographs are not labeled with when they were taken; the \u201cbefore\u201d photos seem like they are from the late 1930s, the \u201cafter\u201d photos are likely no earlier than September 1945, and may be from 1946. | Nuclear Secrecy Blog<\/a>
\/Permalink<\/a> | Alex Wellerstein"},"https:\/\/www.worldwariimonuments.org\/files\/fullsize\/5cee26e395a73c64ebd8662e3291634e.jpg":{"id":87,"mime-type":"image\/jpeg","title":"Untitled","thumbnail":"https:\/\/www.worldwariimonuments.org\/files\/square_thumbnails\/5cee26e395a73c64ebd8662e3291634e.jpg"},"https:\/\/www.worldwariimonuments.org\/files\/fullsize\/e5fa9e8e2762d0ac0ec75c75def85a92.jpg":{"id":311,"mime-type":"image\/jpeg","title":"The World's First Atomic Bomb","thumbnail":"https:\/\/www.worldwariimonuments.org\/files\/square_thumbnails\/e5fa9e8e2762d0ac0ec75c75def85a92.jpg","description":"A photo serves as witness to the first atomic bomb being used in history by United States air forces on Hiroshima. | https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/news\/in-pictures-33787169 | United States Government"},"https:\/\/www.worldwariimonuments.org\/files\/fullsize\/8780c1ada8651cd969c71608aba7f9a5.jpg":{"id":88,"mime-type":"image\/jpeg","title":"Paper Lantern ceremony","thumbnail":"https:\/\/www.worldwariimonuments.org\/files\/square_thumbnails\/8780c1ada8651cd969c71608aba7f9a5.jpg","description":"Paper lantern ceremony on the river in front of the Atomic Bomb Dome commemorating the atomic bombing of Hiroshima at the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park. The first atomic bomb that was dropped by the United States on Hiroshima on August 6, 1945. The bomb instantly killed an estimated 70,000 people and thousands more in coming years from radiation effects. Three days later the United States dropped a second atomic bomb on Nagasaki which ended World War II. | flickr: GetHiroshima.com<\/a>
\/Permalink<\/a> | Get Hiroshima"},"https:\/\/www.worldwariimonuments.org\/files\/fullsize\/de34d616a0c0cbeed9d730fd339ff1c5.jpg":{"id":308,"mime-type":"image\/jpeg","title":""Hiroshima in Ruins"","thumbnail":"https:\/\/www.worldwariimonuments.org\/files\/square_thumbnails\/de34d616a0c0cbeed9d730fd339ff1c5.jpg","description":"An aerial view of the Genbaku Dome reflecting the aftermath of the atomic weapon used two months prior. | https:\/\/hpmmuseum.jp\/?lang=eng | Shigeo Hayashi"},"https:\/\/www.worldwariimonuments.org\/files\/fullsize\/4b2ebc8e4f746e6b8aee0c7c873082f1.jpg":{"id":309,"mime-type":"image\/jpeg","title":"Present Day","thumbnail":"https:\/\/www.worldwariimonuments.org\/files\/square_thumbnails\/4b2ebc8e4f746e6b8aee0c7c873082f1.jpg","description":"An aerial view shows a rebuilt Hiroshima with the chilling reminder of what remains the skeleton of the Genbaku Dome. | https:\/\/guidable.co\/things_to_do\/travel\/five-things-to-do-in-hiroshima\/ | Nadira A. Utari "}}}