Until Bikini Atoll's inscription in 2010, Genbaku Dome is the only World Heritage Site relating to nuclear technology which many people consider a new page of human history making this site to be one of the most unique on the list of UNESCO. My review will focus only for its physical appearance and try not to mention the WWII matters. Genbaku Dome is a ruined building in the centre of the city of Hiroshima and is a part of the much bigger Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park. The building is designed by a Czech architect, Jan Letzel, whose works mainly located in Japan and tragically most of them destroyed by earthquake and war, as a commercial exhibition hall, despite the destruction; many Art Nouveau and classical motifs of the building are still visible. Its iconic ruined dome and building have steel frame supporting to prevent the possible collapse.

It is a common misunderstanding that Genbaku Dome is the single building that survived the atomic bombs as many website claimed. In fact many concrete buildings in the town center are survived the bomb, and actually the small tourist center which located next to the bridge inside the Peace Memorial Park is one of them but no one seem to pay attention! Most of those buildings have been renovated after WWII, only the Genbaku Dome that has been preserved in its ruined state as the memorial. Another misunderstanding is that the dome is the hypocenter; the actual hypocenter is the nearby hospital or a medical clinic at that moment.

On the opposite side of the river is another part of Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park where the Peace Museum, the Cenotaph, and the Peace Flame located. I have to say I really admired the landscape design of the park for its simplicity but elegant in the same time which quite different from the one in Nagasaki. The Peace Museum building designed by Kenzo Tange is a real masterpiece and looked pretty amazing especially at twilight. I also love the way that the Genbaku Dome, the rose bushes, the Peace Frame, the Cenotaph and Museum are located in the same axis line which make the whole park integrated with all elements of symbolic meaning. The Genbaku Dome at night is another surprise, the solemn red light that lid inside the building really similar to burning from Atomic bomb.

Genbaku Dome truly is a significant site for human history as the first wartime use of atomic bomb and should be seen. The place existence is maybe controversial for historical debate, but the lesson I learned after visiting this place and seem to me that Hiroshima and her people also want to convey the message from their city which rises again from the ashes of destruction like phoenix bird is whatever happens life has to go on.