Hiroshima

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Before I left for Japan I told someone that I would be visiting Hiroshima. That person asked, "Does that city even exist anymore?" I knew that it did, but when I arrived I didn't expect it to be as large and as modern as it is. This city has definitely survived since it and its citizens were destroyed by an atomic bomb on August 6th, 1945.

After my sister an I checked into our hotel room, we began our walk towards Peace Memorial Park. We walked along a covered pedestrian mall with many shops, restaurants, and people. We eventually came upon a bridge that went over the Motoyasu River, a spot very near where the atomic bomb was dropped. While crossing the bridge I looked to my right and stopped. What stopped me in my tracks was the "A-Bomb Dome," formerly known as Hiroshima's Industrial Promotion Hall. Despite being located almost directly below the atomic bomb blast, most of its outside structure remained intact and it has stood basically untouched since the blast. If you look at old black and white photographs of what Hiroshima looked like soon after the bombing you'll most likely see this building. It was hard to imagine that nothing else stood around it after the bombing because when looking at it today you see many modern buildings beyond it and beautiful green trees.

As we got closer and began walking around the building it almost seemed like all of the modern surroundings didn't exist. All of the other buildings, car noise, and walking pedestrians seemed to go away. My senses were fixed on the skeleton of a building with twisted metal inside of it and piles of fallen brick surrounding it. Although many people died as a result of the bombing, this building didn't make me think of them. I didn't see it as a memorial. I saw it as a reminder of the day of the bombing and how it should not be forgotten.

After taking a few pictures we made our way back towards the Motoyasu Bridge which leads over the river into Peace Memorial Park. While walking over the bridge I stopped to look at the Motoyasu River. I was imagining some of the things that I read in the book "Hiroshima" before I left for my trip. In the book, there were descriptions of badly injured and burned people who sought refuge along the banks of the river before dying soon after. Needless to say, these were not enjoyable images to have going through my head.

Within Peace Memorial Park are many memorials and monuments. These include the Peace Bell, Children's Peace Monument, the Atomic Bomb Memorial Mound that contains the ashes of many of the people who died, the Flame of Peace, the Cenotaph for the A-Bomb victims, and the Peace Memorial Museum.

We stopped at the Children's Peace Memorial first. It's a memorial dedicated to all of the children who died on the day of the bombing and as a result of the bomb's after effects. It contains a memorial statue that is surrounded by cases holding strings of multi-color paper cranes made by children from all over the world. The paper crane has become a symbol of peace since the death of a little girl named Sadako who died of leukemia ten years after the bombing. Many people, like Sadako, who survived the bombing eventually developed leukemia, an effect of the exposure to radiation from the atomic bomb. I read Sadako's story before my trip and was moved by it. When Sadako was in the hospital she began folding paper cranes believing that making 1000 of them would bring her luck and help heal her leukemia. She eventually lost her battle with leukemia. Her story was told after her death and the paper crane became the symbol of peace that it is today.

The Flame of Peace burns in the middle of the park and will continue burning until all atomic weapons around the world no longer exist. Beyond the flame is the Memorial Cenotaph that has a chest containing the names of the all those who have died as a result of the bombing. It's a shrine of sorts for the Japanese people. There were many flowers placed in front of it and we saw a few people stop to say a prayer in front of it. A special ceremony is held in this location every Aug. 6th on the anniversary of the bombing.

We then made our way to the Peace Memorial Museum. The first half of the museum covered many of the events leading up to the bombing and had models of Hiroshima marking the hypocenter of the bomb and before and after views of the city. It also contains a wrist watch found after the bombing and is stuck on 8:15 a.m., the time the bomb exploded over the city. The next section of the museum provided information on nuclear weapons that have been produced since the bombing and that still exist today. It also focuses on the city of Hiroshima's dedication to being a city of peace and ridding the world of all nuclear weapons.

I thought we had come to the end of the museum after this section and felt somewhat disappointed because the museum didn't seem to cover the devastation experienced by the people of Hiroshima. As we continued through what we thought was leading us to the exit we entered a room with an exhibit containing full size models of a woman and two children walking through burning rubble with skin hanging off of their arms and hands. I then realized that we were not exiting the museum. We were now entering the section of the museum that I initially thought didn't exist.

What we saw next did focus on the victims and survivors of the bombing. The exhibit contained a lot of artifacts like burned clothing, a charred lunch box, broken eye glasses, melted roof tiles, etc. Each artifact included a story about who they belonged to and what happened to that person during the bombing. Some of the stories were difficult to read. One that was especially difficult was that of a three year old boy that died during the bombing. The story was accompanied by a charred and rusted little tricycle, the boy's favorite toy and what he was riding when the bomb hit. I couldn't help think of my three year old son and the impact that would have had on me. His father felt that the boy was too young to be buried in a cemetery away from home so he buried the boy in the backyard of their home along with his favorite tricycle. Some years later the father moved his son's remains to a cemetery and donated the bike to the museum.

Not only were there stories that were difficult to read, there were photographs that were difficult to look at. Photographs of people's bodies with burns from head to toe. Proof of the immediate impact of the bombing and the extreme suffering it brought to those who didn't die instantly.

When you learn about these types of events of war you usually just get a number when hearing about the results. I've heard anything from 70,000 to 200,000 killed in the bombing of Hiroshima. Although these are obviously large numbers, I was never able to put a face to those killed until now. These people are not just numbers to me anymore. They were people leading normal everyday lives when the bomb hit. They were on their way to school, walking to work, or playing outside. Innocent victims of an act performed as a result of decisions made by the leaders of my home country. This was difficult to think about, but it wasn't my focus. These thoughts also came about on my own. Not once did I get the feeling that there was blame being laid upon the United States as I walked through the museum. I was impressed by this. It's main focus was to make people aware of the horrors of nuclear weapons and the terrible results they create. They not only take lives instantly, but they also destroy the lives of survivors who are forced to live with the devastation.

I applaud the city of Hiroshima's devotion to being a city of peace and ridding the world of nuclear weapons and in also making sure that the people who died, or were affected by this event in any way, are not forgotten.

In 2002, the memorial park opened the National Peace Memorial Hall for the Atomic Bomb Victims. We visited here the next day. It's an indoor memorial whose main section is a circular room that includes a panorama etched into the wall that is a view of the destroyed city from the Hypocenter of the bombing. This panorama is made up of 140,000 tiles which is the number of people who were estimated to have died by the end of 1945. In the center of the room is a circular fountain that resembles a clock stuck on the time of the bombing, 8:15 a.m. Separate from this room is a wall of large screens that circulate through names and pictures of victims of the bombing. All of these names are also included inside of the chest underneath the Memorial Cenotaph in the park. The final part of the memorial is the Victim's Information area which included a large screen that told brief stories described by three different victims and their experiences immediately after the bombing. The screen also showed depictions and drawings of the devastation and what these people experienced. The room also included numerous victim's narratives that you could sit and read on about 10 different smaller screens. I thought the memorial was very well done and was another example of how these victims have not and will not be forgotten.

I feel fortunate to have visited the city of Hiroshima and it's an experience I'll never forget.

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Photos

View of A-Bomb dome from Aioi Bridge
The Hypocenter of the bombing is a little beyond the A-bomb dome

Outside of the Hall for Atomic Bomb Victims
This is directly above the room inside of the memorial and includes bricks and debris from the bombing that was unearthed when they were building the memorial