Hiroshima
| Hiroshima-shi () | |||
|---|---|---|---|
 Downtown Hiroshima in 2006 | |||
| Administration | |||
| Country | Japan | ||
| Region | Chgoku | ||
| Prefecture | Hiroshima | ||
| Postcode | 730-8586 | ||
| Mayor | Tadatoshi Akiba ( PSD ) | ||
| Website | Official site | ||
| Demography | |||
| Population | 1,171,640 inhab. (February 2010) | ||
| Density | 1 294 inhabitants / km 2 | ||
| Geography | |||
| Contact | 34 24 '20 "North 132 26 '23 "East / 34.405493, 132.439842 | ||
| Area | 905.25 km 2 | ||
Geolocation on the map: Japan
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Emblem  | |||
34 22'44 "N 132 26'46" E / 34.37889, 132.44611 Hiroshima (, ? literally is the capital of Hiroshima Prefecture and the largest city of the region Chgoku. It is situated on the northern coast of the Seto Inland Sea on the island of Honshu , west of Japan. The city is notorious for having been the victim of the first atomic bombing in history , on 6 August 1945.
Summary |
Before the bomb
Hiroshima was founded in 1589 on the north coast of the Seto Inland Sea (Setonaikai) by the feudal lord Mori Terumoto. He built the castle in Hiroshima on the largest island formed by the arms of the river took off , hence the name that took the city.
Hiroshima became a major urban center during the Meiji era. In 1910 , its population is 143 000 inhabitants, the census of 1940 it reached 344 000 inhabitants . With the expansion of the empire , different types of chemical weapons were produced there as mustard gas , the mustard , the lewisite and cyanide . These gases were used in particular against the Chinese soldiers and civilians as well as experiments on humans by the units of Shiro Ishii .
The first atomic attack in history
In 1945 , the U.S. military had identified six targets: Hiroshima, Nagasaki , Kokura , Niigata , Kyoto and Yokohama.
On 6 August 1945 at 2: 45 pm (local time), the bomber B-29 piloted by Paul Tibbets , named Enola Gay , named after the mother took off from the base of Tinian , with on board a nuclear bomb in the uranium 235 of a power of 15 kilotons, nicknamed Little Boy. The crew is composed of twelve men, including four scientists. Two other B-29 's escort, carrying scientific instruments for analysis of the explosion.
At 7 h 09, the alarm is triggered air in Hiroshima, a single plane is found. This is the B-29 weather observation Straight Flush. Meanwhile, two other aircraft flying over Kokura and Nagasaki for a reconnaissance mission identically. The weather is very good over Hiroshima, the city is chosen as a target. On the ground, the air raid was closed at 7 am 30. The city was bombed during the war bit and people are accustomed to see American bombers flying over their town to the north.
The bomb, covered with signatures and insults at the Japanese army is in flight and dropped to 8 h 15 to almost 9000 meters above the city. At 8 h 16 min 2 sec local time after 43 seconds of freefall, the bomb exploded 600 meters from the ground, vertically from the Shima Hospital 34 23 '41 "N 132 27' 17" E / 34.39482 , 132.45483 , located in the heart of the city, within 300 meters southeast of the Aioi Bridge , originally intended as recognizable by his plan to "T".
The explosion , equivalent to that of 15 000 tons of TNT , instantly open the city. 75,000 people are killed on the spot with a third of the military, including the city being the headquarters of the Second General Army (2, Dai-ni Sgun ? ) created April 8, 1945 from the dissolution of command Defense General (, Boei Soshireibu ? ) responsible for the defense of western Japan, and numerous air bases and arsenals. In the following weeks, more than 50 000 people die. The total number of dead remains unclear and is of the order of 250 000. Of the 90,000 buildings in the city, 62,000 were completely destroyed.
There remained no trace of inhabitants located within 500 meters of the explosion.
In return, the airmen will be 500 km for the fungus in two minutes, reached 10 000 meters. The Enola Gay landed six hours later at Tinian. His crew was immediately decorated.
After the bomb
Hiroshima was entirely rebuilt after the war. At the initiative of its mayor, Shinzo Hamai , she was proclaimed the City of Peace by the Japanese parliament in 1949.
As a witness, the ruins of Genbaku Dome , one of the few buildings not to have been completely destroyed by the explosion, were retained.
The reconstruction of the city includes a Peace Museum , whose buildings were designed by architect Kenzo Tange. A large park, the Memorial Park of Peace , covers 12 hectares, near the hypocenter of the explosion, in which each year, the August 6 , a commemorative ceremony is held. This park contains many memorials to the victims of the bomb. The cenotaph contains the names of all known victims of the bomb, a peace flame broiled, intended to stay on as long as nuclear weapons exist.
In November 2010 Summit of Hiroshima, the Dalai Lama and five other winners of the Nobel Peace attended the Summit of Nobel Peace. The summit this year was devoted to nuclear disarmament and held in Hiroshima. The first Nobel Peace Chinese Liu Xiaobo , who was imprisoned in China, was represented at the summit by Wuer Kaixi , a student leader during the Tiananmen Square protests in 1989. The latter called for the release of Liu Xiaobo. He also said "activists for democracy and human rights lawyers, rights continue to be harassed and imprisoned in China, when we gather in Hiroshima" .
Administration
As one of 17 cities designated by government ordinance in Japan (, Seirei shitei toshi ? ), the city of Hiroshima has additional skills to those normally allocated to cities and those taken at the prefecture and is divided into 8 districts:
Economy
The city is now one of the major industrial centers and ports in western Japan.
Auto plants Mazda is one of the main activities of the city.
There is more than a real increase in polders , now part of the Japanese urban landscape, mounds of earth filling in the continent, and industrial platforms.
Culture
- The Peace Museum brings together many stories relating to the bomb: objects, pictures, model town, survivor testimonies, paintings, etc..
- The Hiroshima Castle was completely destroyed by the explosion, and was rebuilt at the same (but in reinforced concrete) in 1958.
- The traditional garden Shukkei-in is north of the city.
- The famous site of Miyajima is located close to Hiroshima and the torii floating Itsukushima shrine is one of the most famous sites of Japan.
- One of the culinary flagship of Hiroshima is the okonomiyaki , it's a tasty cake of noodles into the sauce, cooked rice between two pancakes.
...
Twinnings
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Honolulu ( United States ) since 15 June 1959 -
Volgograd ( Russia ) since 28 September 1972 -
Hannover ( Germany ) since 27 June 1983 -
Chongqing ( China ) since 23 October 1986 -
Daegu ( South Korea ) since 2 May 1997 -
Montreal ( Canada ) from 4 June 1998
Note
- (en) What Was The population of Hiroshima Before World War 2?
- Hal Gold, Unit 731 Testimony, 2003, p. 57
- Gold idem, p. 58
- Gold, ibid.
- L'Express, 12 November 2010: Call for the release of dissident Liu Xiaobo summit of Nobel Peace Prize
See also
Related articles
- Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki
- Enola Gay
- Hashizume Bun (Japanese poet survivor of the bombing)
- John Hersey
- Hiroshima mon amour (film)
- Barefoot Gen (manga)
External Links
- (En) ECPAD Theme file called "Coming back to Hiroshima on Japan occupied a few months after the atomic blast of August 6, 1945 (photo album, video editing and archival documentary record)
- (Ja) Official website of the City of Hiroshima
- (In) Peace Museum in Hiroshima
Bibliography
- The day the sun fell ... I was fourteen years in Hiroshima, HASHIZUME Bun, published by Editions du Cenacle de France, 2007, ( ISBN 2-916537-01-5 ) Site of the autobiography
- Hiroshima-Nagasaki, the Pacific War, R. Oberle, S. Woelffel, N. Aida, ditions HIRL, 2005, ( ISBN 2914729405 )
- "Kenshiros Way Extreme Emblems East editions of Oxymoron. Jess Kaan (this text has an urban fantasy Hiroshima)
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23 wards of Tokyo | Yokohama | Osaka | Nagoya | Sapporo | Kobe | Kyoto | Fukuoka | Kawasaki | Saitama | Hiroshima | Sendai | Kitakyushu | Chiba | Sakai | Niigata | Hamamatsu | Shizuoka | Kumamoto | Okayama | Sagamihara | Kagoshima | Funabashi | Hachioji | Matsuyama | Higashiosaka |
| img alt = "Representation of Hiroshima" src = "http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/9c/Wards_of_Hiroshima_City_Ja.svg/50px-Wards_of_Hiroshima_City_Ja.svg.png" width = "50 "height =" 44 "/> | Hiroshima |  |
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| Districts: Aki | Asakita | Asaminami | Higashi | Minami | Naka | Nishi | Saeki | ||
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