Shinran Statue

In the last 65 years, the Shinran Statue has known two homes. Its latest home is a fenced stoop on Riverside Drive outside of the New York Buddhist Church. But before that, the Shinran Statue stood proudly outside of a temple in Hiroshima, Japan, in 1945.

More specifically, the statue stood only 1.5 miles from the center of the atomic blast that decimated 70 percent of the buildings in the city and took the lives of 150,000 people. Amazingly, the statue emerged from the explosion unscathed, still standing guard at the burning temple.

Following the war, a Japanese man shipped the statue to New York where it has stayed since 1955. The statue has been free from radiation since it began its stay in the United States and has never posed a danger to visitors.

Today, the 15-foot bronze statue stands as a monument to world peace and the frightening power of the atomic bomb. Its weathered bronze exterior is visible in front of the Buddhist Church, and its amazing legacy is preserved in the nation responsible for its near destruction.