Hiroshima is unfortunately known worldwide because of what happened there in 1945. It was said that the city would be uninhabitable and that the bomb obliterated everything in its path for several kilometres. Even though the city was indeed destroyed, it rose up from the ashes and great efforts were made to rebuild the city. It is now a lovely city of around 1M inhabitants and a major cultural centre in Japan as well as being an important port city for the country. Some buildings were not reconstructed as to leave something to remind ourselves of what happened.
In Japan there is a legend that if you fold 1000 paper cranes you will be granted a wish. It became the symbol of peace 10 years after the bombing, with a 12-year-old girl named Sadako who was diagnosed with leukemia from the radiation she suffered from the atomic bomb. When she started getting sick and it spread at a rapid pace, her father told her about the 1 000 paper cranes. She started immediately and did 1644 cranes with the help of her family and friends before dying. After her death they continued folding until it reached 2000 for her to be buried with 1000 paper cranes. They collected money to build a statue of her holding a golden crane. This is how it became a symbol of peace and children from all over the country send their cranes to the Peace Memorial Museum.
Hiroshima Yamaguchi Fukuoka Nagasaki Kumamoto Kagoshima Miyazaki Beppu