The Camphors of Shirakami Shrine

Shirakami Shrine sits on a rock. Before Hiroshima was built out across its delta the sea came up to this point, and the outcrop the shrine stands on was a landmark for boats, which is why there is a shrine here at all and why the ground was never levelled. Three camphors grow in the courtyard, 490 metres from the hypocentre, and the city registers all three as A-bombed trees under one code, S04a4-01 to 03. The a in that code matters: none of them has been moved. They are the closest camphors on the register, and camphor is the tree that does best on this list, with more entries than almost any other species, because a mature camphor carries an enormous root system and a thick corky bark that a flash of heat scorches rather than kills. The shrine itself burned. The trees held. Stand in the courtyard now and the odd thing is how ordinary it looks: a small shrine wedged between office blocks a few minutes from Peace Boulevard, with three big trees in it and traffic on both sides. No age is recorded for any of the three. They were grown trees in 1945, which puts a floor under them and nothing more.