SOUNDS

Looking at the work of Kenzo Tange’s Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park in Hiroshima, Japan, one can be critical about its narrative. The memorial park opens doors to remember and reflect on those who have died because of the horrific event that ended the Pacific War, yet it seems to close doors for other horrible events that has happened during this time –the memorial is centralised around the horrors of the bombing and its victims, but seems to overlook the Japanese’s contribution during the war.

Don’t get me wrong, it is absolutely needed that the victims of this inhumane event are remembered and to remind ourselves that peace is not for granted, but it seems a bit misplaced that the bigger picture is left out, both at the site and in the museum. This absence is worth noting because it creates a false illusion of one victim and one oppressor during the war. This illusion became clear to me three years after my visit to Hiroshima and its museum, when I visited the National Museum of Singapore. Tange chose to only tell the story of Hiroshima - from a victim point of view -, which might echo his deep personal connections with the place (he attended high school there and his mother died there). Because the memorial park is visited by many people all over the world, you can wonder if it is right to only portray one side of the story.

Architecture can be about telling a story and architects are in control of its narrative - but as much as architecture is about telling a story, it is also about the story that is not told. //