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Published: November 18th 2008
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I spent my first night in Hiroshima drinking in the hostel with three Austrailians that I was sharing a room with. We got a bottle of Saki between us, because none of them had tried it before. I don't think I'll be rushing out to buy another. We spent the night playing games. They showed me Uno and I showed them Othello.
Hiroshima seems like quite a cool city, there's a lot going on and it seems like it has quite a vibrant night-life, but I guess it's hard to come here and not spend the day immersed in the city's horrific past.
I spent the day at the Peace Park and A-Bomb Museum, it was quite an emotional affair and there was a couple of times that the room got a little dusty.
First off visited the A-Bomb dome. The bomb exploded almost directly above it and is one of only a handful of buildings that survived the attack. As I was wondering around I walked past a group of Eastern European tourists who where taking smiley, happy photo's of themselves pointing at the building, I got so angry, I felt like screaming at them.
Next
I walked over the bridge into the peace garden. There is a monument with an origami crane on top of it. There is a story about a girl called Sadako Sasaki. She was only 2 when she survived the initial explosion, but 10 years later fell ill with leukaemia. Spurred on by an old Japanese saying that if you fold 1000 cranes, the gods will grant you a wish. She folded well over 1000 (although wikipedia says she only folded 644) but her wish to get better was not granted and she died a few months later. Now the crane has become a symbol for peace in Japan and Japanese children fold them in the millions and are delivered to hang in the peace garden. Whilst I was there a group of kids came and sung a song around the monument and whilst I was watching a much younger girl came up to me and gave me a crane. Cue more damp eyes.
There is also an A-Bomb museum in the park which I spent most of the day wondering through. It go's through the history of Hiroshima, before and after models, the science of the bomb etc. The
most heart wrenching though is all the torn,burnt blood soaked clothes and personal items, complete with the story behind each of them. The one that really got me was the skin and finger nails of a boy called Noriaki Teshima who was at school when the bomb went off. He somehow made it home despite his skin dangling in tatters. He died a day later, but is said to have been so thirsty he sucked the pus from is nail-less fingers
The Museum also exhibits the letters of protest written by the mayor of Hiroshima to the leader of a country following any nuclear testing they do. So far there has been well over 600 letters, the last one being to Kim Jong Ill in North Korea.
I'm back at the hostel now feeling a bit moody, but I'm hoping to go to Osaka early tomorrow and hopefully go to the Japanese Universal Studios which will be quite a contrast from today.
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