Why go
This period explains connections that are easy to miss between the castle district, Hiroshima Station and the harbor. Rail reached the city in 1894, and a line linked the station to Ujina for military transport. The former exhibition hall beside today's Peace Memorial Park also belonged to this era of commerce and industry.
The full story
After the abolition of the feudal domains in 1871, Hiroshima became the prefectural capital. Ujina Harbor was built in the 1880s, and the San'yō Railway reached Hiroshima in 1894. A further line connected the station to the harbor for military transport during the First Sino-Japanese War. For part of that war, the national government operated from Hiroshima and Emperor Meiji used Hiroshima Castle as headquarters. Industry also expanded, including cotton mills and facilities supplying the military. In 1915, the Hiroshima Prefectural Commercial Exhibition Hall opened to display products and promote trade. Its surviving shell is now known as the Atomic Bomb Dome. Seeing the dome only through 1945 misses the building's earlier role in a growing port and industrial city. The castle, station and Ujina area form a useful geographic outline of this history.