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Thursday, January 5, 2012

Hiroshima Memorial Peace Park Vandalized for the Second Time

Some people are just really sick. This morning, just after 1 am, a man believed to be in his fifties vandalized a centotaph for atomic bomb victims in Hiroshima Peace Park (the memorial for victims of the atomic bombing in 1945 at the end of World War II) by spray painting gold colored paint on the inscription.


This is the second time in ten years that someone (same person?) has vandalized this memorial. In 2002, a man sprayed it with red paint.




Now, what in the world could possibly be the purpose of doing this?



The cenotaph for atomic bomb victims at Hiroshima's Peace Memorial Park was found defaced with what appears to be golden paint in the early hours of Wednesday, police said. 

Paint was sprayed over part of the cenotaph's inscription, which reads, "Let all souls here rest in peace, for we shall not repeat the evil," the police said. 


A security guard rushed to the cenotaph shortly before 1 a.m. after someone entered the site, setting off an alarm. According to a local security company, passersby saw a man with gray hair approach the cenotaph and use something resembling a spray can.

"I have come here every day to pray for peace over more than 30 years. It's a pity . . . that someone does a thing like this," said an 80-year-old woman.




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4 comments:

  1. AnonymousJanuary 5, 2012 at 11:53 PM

    Where is your source saying the guy was in his 50's? I did a fair bit of research for my post on this aswell (here if you wanna check it out; http://goo.gl/SwYDP) and it's more than likely done by Right Wing Nationalists who're intent that Japan shouldn't apologize for anything, despite the fact that the memorial is for those that died in the sense of "Lest we forget" and never really was a statement of apology from Japan.

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  2. AnonymousJanuary 6, 2012 at 12:28 AM

    Mike, you can tell Ryu Oni to look at his own blog's two lower images; both have captions that clearly state ５０代くらいの男 (a man in his fifties). Perhaps he can't read or he didn't really do "a fair bit of research" after all.

    - a friend.

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  3. mike in tokyo rogersJanuary 6, 2012 at 11:11 AM

    Thanks Anon, To, Ryu, my friend, Anonymous is correct. You posted comments about this on my blog. Thank you. I would like to point out to you, on even your own blog, (3rd image down top right corner) and (4th image down top right and bottom) it clearly sates that the man was　”50代ぐらいの白髪男が逃げる目撃情報”　The translation of this is: "Witnesses saw a 50 year old man with white hair running from the scene." I didn't credit this information as it was all over the Japanese news reports in this country. I suspect that Mr. Oni may not be able to read Japanese as well as he portends to (look who's talking! Takes one to know one! Yikes!)... That's OK. I always check with my wife to make sure too - even after hosting Japanese talk shows and being here for nearly 30 years, I'm still on elementary school Kanji books!

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  4. JimboJanuary 7, 2012 at 12:09 AM

    I would say I hope they catch the guy and flay him alive, but it is a peace park so...

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