After leaving the Peace Park we sought out something a little lighter, if remaining reflective, given the morning’s experience.
Just across from the park is the recently built football stadium, home to Sanfrecce Hiroshima F.C. A home that many an English football team would be proud of.
A little further along the way is something – necessarily reconstructed – that marks a very different era: Hiroshima Castle.
The Castle Tower offered great views of the city.
We searched out the Memorial Cathedral for World Peace, the Catholic Church of Noboricho.
We had learned of the work of Jesuit missionary, Father Hugo Lassalle, at the Peace Memorial Museum. Father Lassalle was priest of the parish of Noboricho located less than 1500m from the hypocentre of the bomb. Although severely wounded, he survived, and determined to rebuild his church, as a monument to World Peace. It would be a Cathedral dedicated to the memory of the Atomic Bomb victims, a symbol of love and peace for all nations.
With the blessing of Pope Pius XII, Father Lassalle set about soliciting funds from Europe, America, and from all over the world. The construction begun on 6 August 1950 (5 years to the day after the bomb was dropped) was completed by 6 August 1954. It now stands as a symbol of hope, dedicated to World Peace.
We came across a very familiar figure on the way up to the cathedral.
It reminded us of just such a moment we experienced in Bangkok, at the Assumption Cathedral, last year, recorded here.
Sign of the day?
As to the distinctly masculine signage trend… yet another one!
And then it all made sense. The designer is clearly male? And the designer of this, female?
We male sorts know this feeling do we not? Come to mother, what is daddy thinking of?! Reality. Who ever really thought we were in charge?
And then, elsewhere
Remember the paper (origami) cranes and the symbol of peace?
Going back to Pope John Paul II
War is the work of man. War is the destruction of human life. War is death. Nowhere do these truths impose themselves upon us more forcefully than in this city of Hiroshima
And isn’t it just, all too often, ‘the work of man’
To end a memorable day, with sights and learning deeply etched in our souls.
A truly excellent paella 🇪🇸
Sailing off to Sparta 
Leave a comment