The Discontinuity of Japanese tradition: Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park
ARC: 512 Architecture History/Theory December 7, 2016
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The Discontinuity of Japanese tradition: Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park
On the morning of August 6, 1945, a B-29 bomber flew over the waters of the North Pacific Ocean with the aim of destruction, so as to put an end to WWII. Its target was a primary port for commercial and military activity located in the nuclei of Japan, Hiroshima. By a simple push of a button, a three-meter-long, four-ton atomic bomb was ejected from the aircraft. Everything in its path was instantly obliterated. The devastation of the first nuclear attack in history remains a memory to few and a memorial to many. The destruction of the war made way for a new beginning for Hiroshima. Following the catastrophe of the atomic bomb, Hiroshima, Japan was singled out to serve an important role in world history, symbolizing world peace and an end to nuclear warfare. The representation of peace was signified by the making and design of Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park (Fig. 01 & 02) to be a part of a symbolic response to peace and the hateful acts of war. Figure 01: Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park (Center), Atomic Bomb Dome, and Ota River. Current Hiroshima as of 2014.
Designed by architect KenzĹ? Tange, the park represents more than peace or an end to nuclear warfare; the park embodies a discontinuity with past traditions of the Japanese culture and architecture as a move towards a global ideal for Japan’s future. This discontinuity
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is represented in the design of the park in several ways. First, the correlation of the site plan to specific views, second, the style of the architecture in the park, and lastly, the presence of a metaphysical break of the land by the Ota River, separating the park and a historic bombing relic. Moreover, the Ota River acts as the quintessential foundational element that allows the river to iterate this discontinuity though natural design rather than the built environment, with respect to the views, function, and stylistic design. An examination of the history of the opening, closing, and re-opening of Japan’s borders will explain the divide of past Japanese traditions that is manifested in the park. Throughout the Edo Period, Japan was an open country, involving itself with trade amongst other countries. However, Tokugawa Ieyasu, Japanese shogun from 1623 to 1641, completely changed Japan’s ideology of trade by issuing a National Seclusion Policy from 1633 to 1639. The implementation of the policy was an effort to prevent the exposure of the Japanese people to Western tradition. This policy completely closed the borders of Japan, forbidding entry of foreigners and exit of citizens. This seclusion of closing Japan’s borders is indicative of the tension Japan and trading countries had experienced. It wasn’t until 200 years later that Japan re-opened its borders to Westerners. As expected, governing powers and the Japanese people still had a more traditional Japanese cultural mindset, where the architecture of Japan ranged from traditional Japanese to a more neo-colonial archetype. After WWII in 1954, Kenzō Tange boldly broke away from traditional Japanese and neo-colonial architecture in the design of Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park. Tange proposed a land-use plan for the Reconstruction of Hiroshima as part of his volunteer services for surveying the damaged land. Evaluating the aftermath, Tange saw this as an opportunity to usher in a new order for
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Hiroshima. Without property and zoning constraints, Tange was able to freely design a plan to emphasize a functional zoning system with an emphasis on green areas. 1 In this plan, a park and museum was to be built at the epicenter of the bomb site. Situated at the intersection of the Ota River, the parabola shaped “entity of peace� (Fig. 02), the Hiroshima
Atomic Bomb Dome
Peace Memorial Park, sets amidst a deep foundation of ruin. The aftermath of the rubble and remains of a once Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park
flourishing military port and commercial center left behind a 122,100 square meter blank
Ota River
Museum
Ota River
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slate of the site for Tange to design. The site plan is characterized by its axial orientation and the
Figure 2: Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park and Museum, Site Plan. The Ota river and The Atomic Bomb Dome.
connections of monuments to particular views. In the site plan, diagonal, horizontal, and vertical lines, represented in white (Fig. 2), serve as main paths and circulation that explicitly
Hein, Carola. Visionary Plans and Planners: Japanese Traditions and Western Influences. (New York: Routledge Curzon, 2003), 327-31.
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direct the visitor to main buildings, monuments, and memorials. Additionally, these pathways help guide the eye on straight paths to see important views at different perspectives, such as the view of the historic bombing relic, the Atomic Bomb Dome, or the museum on an axial or diagonal orientation. Most of these paths are quite symmetrical, given an asymmetrical site. However, wandering around off of the large straight paths, there are smaller more intimate pathways that are entangled amongst the trees in the east and westernmost parts of the site. The aforementioned paths hint to the traditions of Japanese gardens in relation to nature that the straight paths cannot imply. To my understanding of the site, analyzing the division of the east and west by the north-south axis of the park, centerfold, implies the past isolation of Japan of Western traditions during the era of Tokugawa Ieyasu’s rule. However, the more horizontal and diagonal paths unite the two east and west quadrants, connecting with the more intimate pathways and extending out toward the Ota River. One way of understanding this uniting factor is that the split of the site illustrates the divided parts and pieces of the world into a whole in such that Japan is now a part of the new world, a new way of thinking. The connection of monuments to particular views aligns with various elements of the park and beyond. These views in which some of the monuments become a viewing device, are not only meant to memorialize the past but suggest a break from the past, literally and figuratively. The primary view (Fig. 03), aligning with the Atomic Bomb Dome and Museum in the vertical most axial orientation, as seen in the site plan (Fig. 02), the visitor peers into the
5 Figure 03: The Arched Cenotaph, Flame of Peace, the Children’s Peace Monument, and the Atomic Bomb Dome (viewed from present (future) to past, inwards out).
arched cenotaph, reading the phrase, “Let all the souls here rest in peace; for we shall not repeat the evil,” etched onto the monument. The directionality and form of the arch, guided by the inscription the monument, visually directs the viewer’s eyes toward the reflections of the Pond of Peace, out toward the Flame of Peace, the Children’s Peace Monument, and out past the river to the Atomic Bomb Dome. This sequential view lets the visitor time travel from the present (or the future 2) to the past in only a blink of the eye. The arched cenotaph serves as a portal into time as the visitor gazes into it, while the Ota River acts as an unseen barrier to the past. The barrier of Ota River can be seen as an invisible constant in the view port and in most views because it is not always visible but it is known. The river metaphorically prevents the body from going back in time physically for there is no bridge, while the mind stays in the past for a while longer. The question of why the bombings happened consumes the thoughts of the viewers; who visually remember the brief of prewar Japan compared to the view of the domed
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Cho, Hyunjung. Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park and the Making of Japanese Postwar Architecture. (Journal of Architectural Education, 2012), 6.
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relic. Hyunjung Cho, author of the article, Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park and the Making of Japanese Postwar Architecture, 3 explains how the design of the park is mediated between the past and future. Cho states that Tange intended it as a means of locating the visitors’ encounter in time and space, leading the visitors counter-chronologically from the future to the past. 4 The future represents the ‘new beginning,’ the Peace Memorial Museum, and the past is symbolized by the Atomic Bomb Dome. To claim a new beginning, one must have a past to substantiate it in order to build upon it. Outside the viewport is a rising of a new era in thought, a new transcription of the future. The future being the setting of a new tomorrow; the new era for Japan, the Peace Memorial Park and Museum. As a direct statement to the discontinuity of Japanese tradition, the style of the architecture is characterized by the parks museum as it responds to the destruction of the war by looking to the future without disrespecting the past. This approach has a direct relationship to Tange’s change of design philosophy in postwar Japanese architecture. As part of a larger transformation and discontinuity in Japanese architecture, Cho identified that there was a stylistic difference in Tange’s wartime architecture compared to his postwar architecture. 5 Cho explains Tange’s wartime architecture as more traditional Japanese, whereas his postwar architecture is influenced by the International Style. Cho mentioned that Tange looked up to Le Corbusier, one of the founding fathers of Modernism, since the time he was a student. 6 The
Cho, Hyunjung. Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park and the Making of Japanese Postwar Architecture. (Journal of Architectural Education, 2012) 4 Cho, Hyunjung. Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park and the Making of Japanese Postwar Architecture. (Journal of Architectural Education, 2012), 6. 5 Cho, Hyunjung. Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park and the Making of Japanese Postwar Architecture. (Journal of Architectural Education, 2012), 7. 6 Cho, Hyunjung. Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park and the Making of Japanese Postwar Architecture. (Journal of Architectural Education, 2012), 7. 3
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Figure 04: The Flame of Peace, the Arched Cenotaph, and Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum (Photograph taken in 21st century)
Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park has an apparent influence from Le Corbusier as the design shows the International Styles influence from Le Corbusier’s Five Points on Architecture:7 the adaptation of a flat roof, base columns supporting the structure above, the horizontality of glazing with louvres, and an emphasis on green space (Fig. 04). 8 This movement in postwar Japanese architecture was a means to break from Japan’s imperial past and traditional ways, shifting from the traditional postwar style of architecture into the international scene. The Ota River can be seen as an important role in the transition of architectural styles from traditional to modern architecture. The river, can be seen as a representation of major water ways as a means of transportation in the exchange of ideas, goods, and services to different countries and cultures; thus, encouraging rapid change through technology, communication, building methods, and building materials of Modern ideals. The turning point of the discontinuity of the
Le Corbusier. Five Points Towards a New Architecture. 1926. 1970 MIT Press. Hein, Carola. Visionart Plans and Planners: Japanese Traditions and Western Influences. (New York: Routledge Curzon, 2003), 327-31.
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traditional Japanese culture and architecture to the International Style says that Japan was ready to be a part of this new world of Modernism. The symbolically illustrated importance of a new beginning is emphasized by the stylistic differences and a change of mindset of traditional to modern architecture in respect to time and place. The barrier between the Peace Memorial Park and the Atomic Bomb Dome is the Ota river (Fig. 01 & 02 (illustrated in blue)). Not only can the river be implemented on a functional and visual basis, the river can also be seen as a metaphorical representation of the break of Japan’s traditional culture and architecture, defined through nature. The physical break of the land by the river metaphysically divides the past and the future (Fig. 02); where the past and future is characterized by the traditional architecture of the Atomic Bomb Dome and the modern architecture of the museum. It is important to understand not only what the people suffered during the war and the isolation of Japan, but what the land suffered and how the suffering of the land in turn, directly affects the people, both during and after the war. The land developed a language that emerged through the architecture of the built environment of the Peace Memorial Park and Museum connecting both people and place in direct relationship to time and place to the past. As noted earlier, the north-south axis dividing the western and eastern parts of the site, along with a direct axial orientation to the Atomic Bomb Dome, conveys a clear notion of the past. The park to the dome is divided by the river. Therefore, the path from the park to the dome is physically broken, no bridges, only flowing water. Only through the views can people reach the Atomic Bomb Dome, thus, no one can return to the past, they can merely look back to it and learn from it. This water barrier defines the break of
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the past traditions and incorporates a worldly sense of humanity and unity; divided by streams and united by stylistic taste and design. The strategic design decisions made by Tange allowed a cohesive narrative to be exposed and experienced. The direct relationship with the site to its views, the shift in architectural style, along with the sites natural features, all allows the Ota River to speak its history in a language that all people can understand. This all-encompassing language bears the worldly peace in which what it was designed for. The Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park’s representation of the discontinuity of past traditions of the Japanese culture and architecture conveys a transition towards a global ideal for Japan’s future by engaging with new people and places around the world; gaining knowledge and power through architecture and planning. The step towards a new future of Japan’s identity serves as an important part of a global identity among powerful nations. The park is a direct statement of the time, enrolling Japan as a part of the new world and new way of thinking.
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Works Cited Minimal. (2011, May 21). [Photograph found in Asia, Travel, Hiroshima]. Monoton + Minimal: Travel Adventures. Retrieved October 29, 2016, from https://monotonundminimal.wordpress.com/2011/05/21/day-172-remember-remember/ (Figure 03). The Peace Center. (1949). [Photograph found in Hiroshima Peace Park, Hiroshima]. (n.d.). In My Architectural Moleskine. Retrieved October 29, 2016, from http://architecturalmoleskine.blogspot.com/2010/08/hiroshima-peace-park.html (Originally photographed 2010, August 6) (Figure 04).
広島平和記念会館総合計画. (1950). そして、初めての実作、「広島ピースセンター」になります。 Retrieved October 29, from http://kenzotange100kenchikunomirai.jimdo.com/%E5%BA%83%E5%B3%B6%E3%83%94%E3%83%BC%E3%82%B9%E3%82%B B%E3%83%B3%E3%82%BF%E3%83%BC/ (Figure 02). Atomic Bomb. (2014). Retrieved September 01, 2016, from http://www.history.co.uk/study-topics/history-oFww2/atomic-bomb Downtown Hiroshima City [Photograph found in Wikia, Hiroshima]. (n.d.). In Hiroshima. Retrieved September 01, 2016, from http://jet.wikia.com/wiki/Hiroshima (Figure 01).