"That" Day

---

The night bus from Tokyo to Hiroshima was fantastic, probably the best bus I have ever taken. The seats recline and there is lots of leg room; they even provide you a blanket! So considering it was 11 hours over night, I slept pretty well. But then I got lost on the way to the hostel and wandered around town for a while with all my bags until I finally found the right building. I still couldn't get into my room until after 3pm, though, so I dropped my bags, had a cup of tea and called home. All I really wanted to see was the Peace Museum and the bomb site, and nothing was open yet because I had arrived so early in the morning.

Once I felt a little rested I set out on foot to the Peace Memorial Park. On August 6, 1945, the United States dropped the first ever atomic bomb over Hiroshima at 8:15 am. The bomb exploded roughly 600 metres above ground, in the centre of town. Instantly, the entire town was flattened, some 300 000 people being directly exposed to the flash. Some people died instantly, some managed to survive severe burns and found their ways home, only to die a few days later from their injuries. Countless more people suffered acute effects and after effects for months and years following the disaster, and 'hibakushas' (A-bomb survivors) are still being surprised with new illnesses appearing today as a result. It was indisputably one of the worst disaster every faced by man-kind.

Coming to Hiroshima I mostly expected to see a little town that would probably not be all that modern (as most post-war city are not) with a big crater-like hole in the ground. What makes Hiroshima remarkable is that that isn't what its like at all. Hiroshima is home to a million and a half people and is very well developed. In fact, if it wasn't for the museum and the memorials you would never know that it had been decimated only 60 years earlier. There also is no hole in the ground because the bomb didn't actually hit the ground, it exploded in the air.

Peace Memorial Park is home to a cenotaph and the Flame of Peace (everything in town has the word 'peace' in the name), as well as the Children's Peace Monument and the Korean A-Bomb Memorial - many of the victims were Koreans who had been forcibly sent to Japan by the Japanese as labourers for the war effort. Scattered throughout the park are several more smaller memorials, including the teachers and students memorial (many young students had been evacuated from the city in the weeks prior to 'that day' and were being taken care of by their teachers), the peace bell, and a dome shaped grave containing over 10,000 cremated bodies who were never identified or claimed.

The Peace Memorial Museum, also known as the A-bomb museum, is at the south end of the park. The museum is a very intense experience as it holds housewares and pieces of buildings that that damaged or destroyed in the explosion, articles of clothing and personal effects in the possession of the victims at the time, and photographs of burn victims. There is even a scale model of the atomic bomb which, even though it was named 'little boy', is certainly not little. The photograph that made the biggest impact on me was a photograph of a woman's back - the flash was so strong that it burned the pattern of her kimono right into her skin.

Just behind the museum is the Hiroshima National Peace Memorial Hall for the Atomic Bomb Victims. The hall is spacious and eerily quiet. The first room is a memorial hall where one can pay their respects; the second room holds a large screen that displays the names and photographs of everyone identified to have died as a result of the bomb. The final room is full of computers where one can either search through a database of the names of the deceased, or scroll through stories of survivors.

The A-Bomb Dome was my last tourist destination of the day. The building is the last visual remnant of a time before August 6th. Miraculously, the building did not fall that day, though it was seriously damaged and never used again. The town kept it as a reminder and began preserving it in 1966 for future generations to experience. In 1996 it was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Sight. It's quiet a sight, to think that the whole city looked worse that day than the building does now.

Its a draining experience to be in Hiroshima, to experience the history. I had dinner on my own that night, sitting at the counter of a busy noodle house, and spent the rest of the evening in the lounge reading my book. I had only planned to stay one night in Hiroshima and I think its a good thing I'm not staying any longer - not only because there isn't much else for a tourist to do, but because I've had my fill. The next morning I'm headed to Okayama.

---