Perhaps one of the best known cities in Japan aside from Tokyo is Hiroshima. Because Hiroshima was bombed during WWII, many history books will mention this city. While much of the city was destroyed from the atomic bomb, the city continues to this day and only has traces of the bombing left.
Japan often recovers very quickly from disasters and tragedies, and the atomic bomb was no exception. You may know that Japan has a very good public transportation system, and Hiroshima had a good streetcar system before the bombing. After the atomic bomb, some of the street cars were functional in just three days! Some of these streetcars from this time are still operated and are used to teach the younger generation about the war.
Another trace of the bombing is the Hiroshima Peace Memorial, which you can see to the left on the picture above. This building’s original purpose was to promote industry and the arts and was designed by a Czech architect, showing us how international Japan was even back then. Now, this building stands as a reminder of the tragedies of war.
While we may tend to stray toward history when discussing Hiroshima, we must not forget that Hiroshima is still there today. Hiroshima’s current population is 1.1 Million people. I did a quick search and found 4 Baptist churches on the map. Could you imagine being in a city where each church needed to reach a quarter of a million people each year?
Hiroshima is lifted up as the city of peace because of what happened, but the city will never know peace unless they come to know the Prince of Peace. Will you pray that the Lord will send forth laborers into His harvest in Hiroshima?
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