Hiroshima Castle

I reached a bridge and saw that the Hiroshima Castle had been completely... 

The venues of the symposia have provided unique opportunities to visit scenic and cultural sites throughout the world. These sites have included the national parks in Utah cathedrals and palaces in Europe, Korea, and Japan dinner cmises on the Inland Sea from Hiroshima to Miyajima and on the canals of the Netherlands the Edinburgh Tattoo at Edinburgh Castle historic sites in Jerusalem beautiful beaches of Hawaii Jean-Marie Lehn presenting an organ recital in the Sheffield cathedral the Great Barrier Reef in Australia, and ancient Tuscany villages in Italy. These visits provided opportunity for informal contact and increased the appreciation of the participants for the cultural and scenic values in other locations. 

By then Hiroshima and its castle had found further service as an army base and the Imperial Army Fifth Division was quartered in barracks within and aroimd the castle grounds. The Fifth Division was the first to be shipped to battle when Japan and China initiated hostilities in 1894 Ujina harbor served as a major point of embarkation and would continue in that role for the next fifty years. The Meiji emperor moved his headquarters to the castle in Hiroshima in September, the better to direct the war, and the Efiet met in extraordinary session in a provisional Diet building there. Until the following April, when the limited mainland war ended with a Japanese victory that included the acquisition of Formosa and the southern part of Manchuria, Hiroshima was de facto the capital of Japan. Then the emperor returned to Tokyo and the city consolidated its gains. 

Hiroshima, entirely on flat land, was made three-dimensional by the existence of the white castle, and because of this it could retain a classical flavor. Hiroshima had a history of its own. And when I thought about these things, the grief of stepping over the corpses of history pressed upon my heart. 

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