Peace Boulevard (Hiroshima)
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Peace Boulevard (平和大通り Heiwa Odori?) is one of the main streets in Hiroshima, Japan, which is faced to the south side of Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park.
The street is 100 meters wide and runs 3.6 km from east to west, between Tsurumi-cho and Fukushima-cho with the green belt.
There are 5 bridges to connect the street including west and east Peace Bridges by Isamu Noguchi.
The west end bridge connect to "Nishi Hiroshima Station" and the east end bridge connect to "Hijiyama Park"
[edit] History
- The construction was started by citizens and students in 1945, the year of the end of World War II, as a buffer zone to protect the spread of tradiation.
- On the 6th of August in 1945, tens of thousands of citizens and students were dead due to the a-bomb. The exact number of victims is still unknown.
- The plan to build the Peace Boulevard, the Hiroshima Castle, the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park and the Hiroshima Chūō Park were formalized in the Hiroshima Peace Memorial City Construction Law of 1948.
- In the mid-1950s, there was a tree-planting campaign, and around 120,000 trees were donated from Hiroshima Prefecture alone, with many more trees and plants being presented from all over Japan and the rest of the world in the name of peace.
- Now, the Peace Boulevard and the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park are places of recreation and relaxation for the citizens.
- The Peace Boulevard is the site of many events, such as festivals, concerts and ekiden races (Including the Inter-prefectural Men's Ekiden of Hiroshima), the Hiroshima Flower Festival
