Hiroshima+Castle

=Hiroshima Castle= By: Ben Trouvais

Hiroshima Castle, occasionally referred to as Carp Castle, was the home of the feudal lord of Hiroshima. The castle was destroyed by the bombing of Hiroshima in 1945. In its place, there is now a replica of the castle which was built in 1958.

Mori Terumoto ordered the building of the castle in 1589. Construction of the castle began in 1592 and was finished in 1599. It was because of the castle that Hiroshima was named and became one town as apposed to the multiple, separate districts before. Because the castle was built at the delta of the Otagawa river, where many wide islands were, it was named Hiroshima meaning "wide island." Between 1894 and 1895, the castle served as a military fortification during the First Sino-Japanese war. The castle was entirely destroyed in 1945 when American forces dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima. The shock-wave blew out the supports of the castle causing everything atop to come crashing down.

The original complex was built from wood, mainly pine. The castle also had attached wings to the east and south. It was estimated that the castle was finished between 1592 and 1599 and was named a National Treasure in 1931. The castle itself is about 27 meters above the stone foundation which is 12 meters above the ground. The original building had three moats, all concentric. The outer two moats were filled in the 19th and 20th centuries. the area within the moats have been extremely made into industrial areas. Only two trees within the walls survived the bombing, and are considered to be sacred. Also, there is a bunker in the castle walls which transmitted the first radio report after the bombing.