A small stone monument is located where the nuclear bomb was dropped. Not many tourists walk far enough to see it. I couldn’t help but stop by after hearing the story about Shima Hospital, which carries the history of this stone monument.

Shima Hospital has been here since the 1930s. When the bomb exploded in the air in August 1945, the hospital was eviscerated. The doctor, who was by some miracle away at a different hospital that day, came back to treat the victims. Within a few years after the end of the war, he rebuilt the hospital using the scarce materials of a post-war Hiroshima, at the same site where it used to stand.

In his memoir, he says, “My new hospital is dedicated to caring for the poor and to establishing world peace.” He devoted his life to saving the victims. He must have been a very brave physician.