Hiroshima: The City of Hope

This episode of Journeys in Japan travels to Hiroshima, a city attracting attention as a treasure trove of quality architecture. Now nearly 70 years since the devastation of the atomic bomb, the program visits the city sights from the 3 viewpoints of architecture, war and tourism, exploring the city's history of urban development and architecture as it was rebuilt after the world's first nuclear attack. Our traveler on his first trip to Hiroshima is Charles Glover, an actor from the United States. Hiroshima is one of Japan's top industrial cities which had developed as a huge military base before the atomic bombing. Our traveler visits the Atomic Bomb Dome (Genbaku Dome) and Peace Memorial Museum, and while gaining a renewed realization of the fierce destructive power of the atomic bomb, he observes the masterful spatial designs and their inherent message never to repeat the tragedy again. He also visits the high-rise complex that was built where there had been the post-war slums, ponders over his perception of Hiroshima as someone from a nation that won World War II, and discusses the topic of peace with the students at a high school with an innovative design, learning how one of the top military cities in the country had transformed into a city aspiring to create a world of peace. Charles from the United States goes on this journey with the questions "How had the city managed to recover from such a tragedy?" and "How had the wish for peace been passed down to the people of Hiroshima today?" in mind. He reflects upon the human stupidity of the past and searches for the possibility or hope for eternal peace.