Hiroshima

Why Hiroshima works

Hiroshima's Peace Memorial Park and its centrepiece, the Atomic Bomb Dome — the skeletal ruin of a building left standing near ground zero of the 1945 atomic bombing — form one of the most affecting historical sites anywhere in the world, preserved deliberately as a permanent reminder rather than rebuilt. The adjacent Peace Memorial Museum documents the bombing and its aftermath through personal artefacts and testimony, a difficult but essential visit for understanding the city's modern identity as a global centre for peace advocacy. Beyond this history, Hiroshima has rebuilt into a genuinely pleasant, walkable city, with Hiroshima Castle's reconstructed keep and Shukkei-en garden offering a quieter counterpoint to the Peace Park. A short ferry ride away, Miyajima Island is home to Itsukushima Shrine, whose vermillion torii gate appears to float on the water at high tide — one of Japan's three most celebrated scenic views for centuries. The island's resident sika deer wander freely near the shrine and the base of Mount Misen, which can be climbed or reached by ropeway for views across the Seto Inland Sea. Hiroshima is also the birthplace of okonomiyaki's layered Hiroshima-style variant, built with noodles stacked between egg and cabbage rather than mixed together, best eaten at one of the counter stalls inside Okonomimura, a multi-storey building devoted entirely to the dish.

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