Rising like a Phoenix from the flames

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Day 443: Tuesday 15th September - Riding the Shinkansen to the low point in Japan’s history

After 9 days in and around the capital it is time to leave Tokyo behind and explore more of Japan’s main island, Honshu. My next destination is Hiroshima, known primarily as the first city in history to have a nuclear bomb dropped on it. Hiroshima is 900 kilometres (400+ miles) to the west of Tokyo and by normal standards that would be a full day spent travelling. This though is Japan, and it is blessed with probably the best railway network in the world. With my JR rail pass in hand I board a Shinkansen (bullet train) for Hiroshima. In the 5 hours (including one hour required to change) it takes to cover the journey it doesn’t feel like we’re doing almost 200 miles an hour. From the comfort of the carriages the train doesn’t make much noise and the only occasions you can gauge that the Shinkansen actually is that fast is when you make traffic on adjacent highways appear stationary and when another of the Shinkansen trains flies past you when our train is stationary at one of the few stations it stops at.

Otherwise, it would never feel like I was riding the fifth fastest train in the world. When I discovered this on the internet I got a bit of a surprise as I always thought that the Japanese bullet train was the fastest. However, it has since been surpassed by the Chinese in Shanghai and Beijing, the TGV in France and the AVE in Spain, all of which have commercial speeds in excess of 200mph. The UK which gave the world the railway, currently lies just above India complete with hundreds of Indians hanging from the carriages and Cambodia with its Bamboo railway!! Oh how the times have changed from our heyday in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries when we led the world. Like with most things we’re great at coming up with an idea, an invention, but we don’t seem to build on this and soon get left behind by the rest of the world. I could list numerous examples. Lament over.

In Hiroshima I drop my bags off at the hostel and waste no time in heading to the Peace Memorial Park, a 20 minute walk away, where all the reminders are that this city was once levelled by the first atomic bomb ever dropped on a city on 6 August 1945. The first building you come to, on the edge of the park is the A-Bomb Dome. Once the Hiroshima Prefectural Promotional Hall the skeletal remains are the symbol of the destruction visited upon Hiroshima. Its propped up remains, have been left as an eternal reminder of the tragedy. This is the only building in the centre of Hiroshima that survives from before that momentous day in 1945. It does so because it was so close to the epicentre of the atomic bomb. The bomb exploded approximately 600 metres above and 160 metres southeast of the building now known as the A-Dome.
With time running out before the museum closes I walk across the park to the Peace Memorial Museum. The museum takes you through the events preceding, during and after the atomic bombing on 6 August 1945 and is incredibly interesting, moving and thought provoking.

Once the US entered the war in late 1941, slowly the tide began to turn and by early 1945 Japan was in an extremely weak position. The US was considering the following ways of bringing the war to an end:

1) Invade the Japanese mainland in November 1945.
2) Ask the Soviet Union to join the war against Japan.
3) Use the atomic bomb.

The US believed that if an atomic bomb could end the war the enormous cost of developing it would be justified domestically and Soviet influence post war would be restricted. In February 1945, the leaders of Britain, US and Soviet Union met and agreed that within 3 months of the end of the war in Europe, the Soviet Union would declare war on Japan. Germany surrendered in May 1945, and in an extremely weak condition, Japan began negotiating peace through the Soviet Union, with which it had signed a neutrality pact, hoping to end the war on terms more favourable to Japan. However, after Germany’s surrender tensions mounted between the US and the Soviet Union regarding the disposition of post-war Europe. The US began to worry about the increased influence the Soviets would obtain if they joined the war with Japan in mid-August as planned. The US also believed that if the atomic bomb ended the war then the US would gain post-war supremacy over the Soviet Union.

Why Hiroshima? The US began studying targets for the bomb in spring 1945. To ensure that the effects of the atomic bomb could be accurately observed, potential target cities were required to have a diameter of 3 miles, and air raids in those cities by conventional bombers were prohibited. A shortlist of 4 cities was drawn up and the order issuing the primary target as Hiroshima was given on 2 August 1945. One reason that it is thought that Hiroshima topped the list is that no Allied prisoners of war camps were believed to be in the city. On 6 August 1945 the sky over Hiroshima was clear. The city’s fate was sealed. On 8:15am on a sunny morning the US bomber Enola Gay dropped ‘Little Boy’ and the nuclear age began. Three days later a second atomic bomb was dropped on Nagasaki (originally bound for Kokura but that city was clouded over), and 8 days after the first atomic bomb was dropped the war was over, Japan surrendering one day after the Soviet Union had entered the war. By the end of 1945, 140,000 people are estimated to have lost their lives in Hiroshima.

Just understanding the history of the lead up to the dropping of the atomic bomb is incredibly interesting. Then reading memorandum’s ordering the issuing of the bombing is unbelievable and before and after models of Hiroshima along with pictures of the bombed city is an emotional experience. This is all on the ground floor of the museum but this is only the first part of the story. The next section is the one which starts challenging your opinion on nuclear warfare.

Since the two atomic bombs were dropped on Japan in 1945, a further 7 countries have developed and tested nuclear weapons (Soviet Union, Britain, France, China, Israel, India and Pakistan in that order). The last three did so in contravention of the UN nuclear non-proliferation treaty signed in 1968 which prohibits other countries apart from the first five to develop nuclear weapons from possessing them. North Korea and Iran threaten to add themselves to the list of countries with nuclear weapons. In the cold war the US and the Soviet Union developed and tested weapons much more powerful than the one used in Hiroshima. The largest nuclear weapon ever exploded was a 50 megaton bomb tested by the Soviet Union in 1961, 3100 times more powerful than the one dropped on Hiroshima. At its peak, the total destructive power of the five original nuclear powers was 1.38 million times the power of the bomb dropped on Hiroshima! The number of nuclear warheads at the start of 2008 numbered just over 10,000, the US and the Soviet Union in possession of 90% of these, but the other 6 nuclear powers each have the capacity to cause destruction to the earth as we know it today.

So, in the 6 decades since the dawn of the nuclear age we know that the number of countries possessing nuclear weapons has increased, we know the number of nuclear weapons has increased (although the current trend is now a reduction) and we know the power of the weapons has increased. Yet, in the 60 years since Hiroshima and Nagasaki no other nuclear bomb has been dropped. My feeling on this prior to visiting Hiroshima is that the possible effects caused by a full scale nuclear war (nuclear winter with reduced temperatures as the sun’s rays can’t get through the radioactive dust clouds leading to inhibited food production and probable mass human starvation along with illness from the radiation) have been enough of a deterrent. However, much to my surprise and horror nuclear weapons were considered for use in the following conflicts since the end of the Second World War:

• Korean War between 1950 and 1953
• Cuban missile crisis in 1962
• Intensification of the Vietnam War in 1968/9
• Invasion of Jordan by Syria in 1970
• Desire to halt the fourth middle east war in 1973
• Desire to halt the Iran crisis in 1980
• Anticipation of Iraq’s use of chemical weapons in the Gulf War in 1991

The fact I include only half of the occasions that nuclear weapons were considered for use is scary enough, and the fact that some of these conflicts aren’t even known to me, but could have resulted in the end of the world as we know it is even more chilling. It gets me thinking about my own response and opinion about nuclear weapons. I believe that nuclear proliferation is wrong so the converse reduction is a good thing. But, until now I have thought that the possession of some nuclear weapons may not be such a bad thing as it is a deterrent, and we may have avoided worse conflicts over the last few decades because of the nuclear age we are in. Walking around this museum changes that. I support the mayor of Hiroshima in his goal to eliminate nuclear weapons by 2020, although I do feel this may be a touch optimistic.

By the time I get to the final section of the museum which graphically portrays the effect the atomic bomb had on the people of Hiroshima the museum is about to close. Still, seeing the remains of burnt clothing and a fire damaged child’s tricycle is heart-rending. After the rational reasoning of the idiocy of nuclear weapons in the last section of the museum, this section provides the final emotional layer of reason as to why the nuclear age has to come to an end. I also feel that my one visit is not enough. I will return tomorrow, this museum deserves my full attention and I haven’t really seen much of the final section.
One of the remarks in the comments book has me exasperated. One French girl wrote that the museum wasn’t balanced, didn’t mention anything of the Japanese atrocities of war. She completely missed the point. This museum isn’t about war, nor even the Second World War. Rather it is about the Hiroshima’s place as the beginning of the nuclear age and it advocates nuclear disarmament using both rational and emotional means. In my opinion it does this very well and in a balanced way. Today, it has changed one mind.

I leave the museum as it closes and walk through the Peace Memorial Park. I stop at the cenotaph to pay my respects. Behind the cenotaph the Flame of Peace is burning and will only be extinguished when the last nuclear weapon on earth has been destroyed. Further into the park is the Children’s Peace Monument to mark all the children that died as a result of the atomic bombing. It was inspired by leukaemia victim Sadako Sasaki. Sadako is immortalized at the top of the statue, where she holds a crane. Thousands of origami cranes from all over the world are offered around the monument on a daily basis, with ancient Japanese tradition holding that one who folds a thousand cranes can have one wish granted. They serve as a sign that the children who make them and those who visit the statue desire a world without nuclear war, having been tied to the statue by the fact that Sadako died from radiation-induced leukemia after folding just under a thousand cranes, wishing for world peace. There is also a Korean A-Bomb memorial in the park to honour the many Koreans who were killed by the bomb. One in ten killed were Korean, many slave labourers. It is the Atomic Bomb Memorial Mound that I find the most emotional though. It is a large, grass-covered knoll that contains the ashes of 70,000 unidentified victims of the bomb.

As darkness descends I sit in respectful reflection of the thousands of innocent people that died in the Hiroshima atomic bomb. There is a special feel about the Peace Memorial Park, a kind of spirituality. I’ve seen Auschwitz and S-21 in Cambodia, scenes of mass genocide, both of which had the hairs of the back of my neck standing on end and both of which were hugely emotional experiences. Hiroshima is different though, there is a positive side to the Hiroshima story. The city rebuilt itself quickly, it is now an attractive and modern city. In Hiroshima, there is an amazing feel about the power of humanity to overcome any obstacle placed in front of it. Regardless about what Gods you may or may not believe in, you cannot fail to believe in people and the human race by visiting Hiroshima. When the world feels too tough, or times are hard I will always use Hiroshima as a reference point. A very, very special place.


As I walk back to the hostel in a reflective mood, the A-Bomb Dome is lit up under spotlight. This is a haunting reminder of the tragedy of Hiroshima. The reminder of the utter destruction that the atomic bomb caused in Hiroshima. The reminder that twice (including Nagasaki) is enough. Hiroshima is one place you should visit in your lifetime. The story is heartbreaking but positive not negative. This is a living memorial not a depressing look on the past. It is the embodiment of the city’s continuing campaign for nuclear disarmament.

Day 444: Wednesday 16th September - An 8 hour round trip for a bath.......are you crazy??!!

Yesterday I realised that I absolutely had to visit the museum again. I missed the section that concentrates on the damage caused by the bomb. First though, before the museum opens I rise early and I walk around the Peace Memorial Park again, stopping to reflect and to soak up the special atmosphere. It is such an inspirational place. If I lived here it would be part of my daily routine. You can’t help but be inspired by the city’s regeneration, rising like a Phoenix from the flames, forgiving its once enemies but not forgetting its role in educating current and future generations about the terror of nuclear weapons.
I end up spending an hour in the museum in my second visit. The exhibits include clothing, watches, hair and other personal items worn by the victims. There are also parts of buildings showing what happened to the wood, stone, metal, glass as well as flesh from the heat generated from the bomb. Another section looks at the destruction of the blast which destroyed pretty much everything in a two kilometre radius. Then there are displays detailing the effects of radiation which continued to kill people many years after the atomic bomb was dropped. I could go around the museum again but I’m short of time as I want to have my next ‘only in Japan experience’ - the Onsen baths.

I’m not going to satisfy myself with any old Onsen baths though. No the one I have in mind is in Matsuyama, the biggest city on Shikoku island to the south of Honshu island. The direct way to make this journey is to take a hydrofoil across the Inland Sea. However, with a JR rail pass I can take the train between the two cities which takes longer at 4 hours but is absolutely free. I suppose making an eight hour round trip to take a bath is a bit extreme but like I said these are no ordinary baths. The Dogo Onsen is the oldest and most famous baths in Japan, with a history stretching back 3000 years. The Dogo Onsen is also the baths of the Emperor and the Imperial family has visited several times. What’s good enough for the Emperor of Japan is good enough for this pauper of Prudhoe!!!

On my way to the Onsen I visit Matsuyama castle, one of three hill-top castles remaining in Japan. I will visit the most famous of these - Himeji - tomorrow on my way to Kyoto. But it’s the Dogo hot springs I came to Matsuyama for and with a four hour return journey to go I had better get a move on.

Arriving at the Dogo Onsen my first decision is which of the courses to take. Having travelled four hours for a bath, there is only one way, first class. For 1500 Yen (£10) I get a private room on the third floor, I get to bathe in the Tama-no-yu (water of the spirits) rather than the Kami-no-Yu (water of the gods), and I get Tea and Botchan Dango (skewered rice dumplings covered in bean paste dyed with green tea), as well as a tour of Imperial Family’s bath. Now with Onsen there is a protocol to observe. I get led to my dressing room where I can leave my bag and where I change out of my clothes and into my Yukata (like a dressing gown). You then press the buzzer in your room and the ladies then lead me down to the second floor where I get a tour of the Imperial Family’s bath. After the tour I am led down to the men’s Tama-no-yu baths. Before entering you change out of your Yukata and enter the public baths in your birthday suit. You are expected to wash and shower before you enter the baths and you do this sitting down on a stool. And then there’s nothing between you and the red hot, restorative waters of the Onsen. Bliss! I love it!
After my Onsen I retire back to my private room, sitting on the tatami mats sipping tea and munching on my Botchan Dango which are okay. A brilliant experience, I wish I’d had a bit more time to take it at a bit more of a relaxing pace but nevertheless I wasn’t rushed. I’m pleased I did it in style, and came to the historic Dogo Onsen even though it was a long trip.

I manage to catch the first train back to Hiroshima that I had earmarked. Just, only just. Japanese trains run to the second. Don’t hope that your train will be late so you’ll be able to catch it, it won’t be. Anyway, I get back to Hiroshima at 9:30pm and climb aboard the tram to the Peace Memorial Park. I just have to pay another visit as it has left an indelible impression on me. I also want to take some photos after my camera battery died last night. The Flame of Peace is still burning, the question is will it still be in our lifetime? We owe it to future generations to work towards a nuclear free world.

I have loved my time in Hiroshima. It feels like a real privilege. It is special and I know now with still half my Japanese trip ahead of me that this will be my favourite place in Japan.

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