Hiroshima
(2002 est. pop. of prefecture 2.9 million). The city of Hiroshima (2002 estimated population1.1 million) is the capital of Hiroshima Prefecture, situated on Japan's island of Honshu. Today a city dedicated to peace, it was the first to be devastated by an atomic bomb. Now one of the nation's most modern urban areas, the rebuilt Hiroshima is the leading industrial center of the western Honshu region.
The devastation in Hiroshima after the atomic bombing of 6 August 1945. (BETTMANN/CORBIS)Hiroshima grew during the Edo period (1600/1603–1868) as a castle town around a fortress completed in 1593 by the great warrior and Japanese feudal lord Mori Terumoto. After the 1868 Meiji Restoration, the city became an important military, industrial, and transport center. In an attempt to bring World War II to an end, the atomic blast of 6 August 1945 leveled Hiroshima, eventually killing some 200,000 people. Today Hiroshima is a center for world peace. Near the blast epicenter are the Atomic Bomb Memorial Dome, Peace Memorial Park, a museum, and a cenotaph memorializing the victims. There also is a smaller town of Hiroshima outside Sapporo on Hokkaido island; it was settled in 1884 by emigrants from Hiroshima Prefecture.
Hiroshima Prefecture occupies an area of 8,467 square kilometers. Its geography features the Chugoku Mountains, southern highlands, and coastal plains. It is bordered by the Inland Sea and by Shimane, Tottori, Okayama, and Yamaguchi prefectures. Once divided into Aki and Bingo Provinces, it assumed its present name and borders in 1876. In the late twelfth century, the ruling Taira family first developed the region as a commercial and trade center for Inland Sea shipping.
Today rice, citrus fruits, cattle, chrysanthemums, and rushes for tatami mats are produced. The traditional activities of forestry, fishing, and sake brewing continue as well, as do food processing and textile weaving. Heavy industries include steel, petrochemicals, shipbuilding, and automobiles. Visitors are drawn to the island of Miyajima's Itsukushima Shrine, officially one of Japan's three most beautiful views.
Further Reading
Hersey, John. (1985). Hiroshima. New York: Knopf.
Selden, Kyoko, and Mark Selden, eds. (1997). The Atomic Bomb: Voices from Hiroshima and Nagasaki. New York: M. E. Sharpe.
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