August 19, 2008: Hiroshima

We arrived in Hiroshima the evening of August 18^th, we went out for sushi and then went to sleep at our hostel. We awoke at 7am the next morning to a rainy day. It set the mood for the upcoming day of touring the Peace Memorial Park, the A-Bomb Dome (across the river from the park) and the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum.

The A-Bomb Dome was originally the Industrial Promotional Hall until the August 6^th, 1945 Atomic Bomb exploded 600 meters above it. This building was one of the only buildings left standing after the bomb exploded. The building and rubble have been preserved to look exactly how it looked after the explosion.

The Peace Memorial Park is a park containing many memorials. We first visited the Tower for Mobilized Students, and then we visited toe Children’s Peace Monument. This monument was inspired by Sadako Sasaki, who was 2 years old when the bomb exploded. She developed Leukemia at the age of 10 and decided to fold 1000 paper cranes. Folding cranes is an ancient Japanese custom that says your wishes will be granted if you fold 1000 cranes. She hoped that by folding the cranes she would recover. Sadly she died before completing them, and her schoolmates completed them in her memory. Surrounding the monument, thousands of folded paper cranes donated by students around the globe are enclosed within glass and are on display.

We also visited the Peace Bell and the Korean A-Bomb Memorial. During the time of the bomb, many Koreans were living in Hiroshima as slave laborers and other professions. About 10% of those killed by the bomb were Korean.

We then visited the Cenotaph and the Flame of Peace. The Cenotaph has all the known victims named inscribed in it, and the Flame of Peace is a flame which will stay lit until every last nuclear weapon on earth is destroyed.

On the south side of the park is the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum. We went inside and first watched a 45 minute documentary called “Hiroshima and Nagasaki: The Harvest of Nuclear War”. I’m not sure if I was quite prepared for the film. It was a very graphic and detailed story of the devastation that was brought by these 2 bombs in both cities, and the aftermath of it all, on both the survivors and the city. It was very shocking and extremely upsetting to see such devastation.

After watching the film, we entered the museum. The museum provided us with some history of Japan, on nuclear bombs and it also contained artifacts that survived. There were many photos (Hiroshima before and after the bomb, survivors, etc). There was information on the devastating acute effects to humans immediately after the bombing as well as the after-effects that began appearing 2 years later, including Leukemia and other cancers. Many people had drawn images and wrote personal descriptions of the tragedy, which were also on display for all to read and view. These were extremely moving and very saddening.

Not only did the bomb generate a nuclear explosion, it also generated an enormous fireball as well as black (toxic) rain. Many people who did not die in the explosion died from the fire, and thousands and thousands from the radiation both from the explosion and from the black rain, which contained large amounts of radioactive material. The entire city was flattened, except a few large buildings and approximately 140,000 people were killed.

Hiroshima before the bomb:

Hiroshima after the bomb:

A photo taken of the area surrounding the dome after the bomb:

This is one of the first photos taken after the bomb. It was taken about 2 hours after the bomb exploded, a few kilometers from the center. The photographer could barely see through the lens of the camera because it was fogged up with his tears.

Since all the schools in Hiroshima were destroyed, classrooms were moved outdoors:

This tricycle belonged to a 3 year old boy named Shinichi Tetsutani. He was riding this tricycle the morning of the bomb, when he was suddenly burned to death. His father buried his body along with his tricycle and helmet in their backyard. Forty years later he dug up the remains so they could be transferred to the family grave, and the tricycle was donated to the museum.

We were all deeply saddened by the museum and at times I was on the verge of tears. We journeyed back to our hostel almost entirely in silence as we all recovered from the sadness. We collected our backpacks from the hostel and got on a train to travel to Kobe.