Hiroshima

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Yesterday we arrived at Hiroshima in the afternoon, after 4 hours and a half in the Shinkansen (bullet train). Despite having to change trains once, and despite the fact that we spent the last leg of the journey in the smokers’ car (irony, can’t smoke in the streets but more than half the trains in the Shinkansen are reserved for smokers!) I enjoyed the ride, listening to music whilst watching the Japanese green landscape pass by. As everything else in this country, the train was punctual, the inside clean and comfortable, staff efficient and ever-respectful (the ticket inspector bowed when coming in and out of each car!!) – what can I say... everything in Japan is tourist-friendly and works perfectly in general. Hiroshima is no different – we took a bus to where we’re staying and discovered people are supposed to get in the bus through the back and then leave through the front (paying as they leave). Good way of checking everyone pays! We choose a place for dinner and find it easily enough – it’s not a big city. Let me tell you my friends: yesterday was the day I made peace with Octopus. I never liked it and always avoided it, but yesterday night, in CHA CHA NI MOON, I fell in love. Such lovely food!! That Octopus, that salad, that tuna, that avocado!! Mmmm there are not enough words to describe how good it was. We left smiling and promising to come back today, not without a great amount of hand gestures and signals (trying to explain how satisfied and impressed we were) – the staff followed us to the door, smiling and laughing – and waved goodbye. Can people be so nice? Apparently yes.
Today we visited Hiroshima’s Peace Memorial Park and Museum. Both were designed by the same architect, whose name I cannot remember gggrr, as a symbol of the Japanases’ desire to maintain genuine lasting peace world-wide and as a ‘visual’ prayer for the souls lost when the first atomic bomb was dropped over Hiroshima on 6th August 1945. In entering the park one feels a sort of calmness and peacefulness, there are trees and flowers and people walk around silently. Once in the museum, it’s pure devastation. What can I say... I left the place in tears. It’s very interesting and informative (Hiroshima before and after the war, survivors, victims, all you want to know about atomic/nuclear bombs, why the decision was taken to drop the bomb over Hiroshima, why it should never happen again....) but above all, I found it heartbreaking. I memorised this sentence just so I could share it with friends and family: ‘History clearly shows us that using military might to impose a group or country’s will is wrong’. I think that’s the key to this terrible disaster and the many others (wars, nuclear threats, terrorism etc) that continue taking place throughout the world. No matter what, NOTHING justifies the use of nuclear weapons... if you could have seen the effects of that bomb (nothing compared to what countries can create nowadays) in terms of illness, hunger and overall destruction to a small city like Hiroshima... you’d be scared of what is going on in the world at the moment. Exposed are letters written by the Mayor to President Obama in protest for the continuous nuclear tests which are STILL happening... written in March this year. When will we ever learn? If there was to be a full-scale nuclear war, something called the NUCLEAR WINTER would happen to ALL of us (not just the ‘bad’ people, according to some): sunlight would be screened out, food production inhibited, animals would die, mass starvation, terrible effects due to radiation (affecting even unborn children) etc. What I wonder is how anyone can think of even using such a weapon when, if used, there will be no world left to fight for.
Today I learned that Hiroshima was a military base as well as a city, for the Japanese 5th Division, probably the reason why it became a target. This does not justify the loss of these souls – most of the 140.000 people that died by the end of that year were non-combatants. Most of these civilians were forced to work and support the military effort. Many were children (opposite what remains of the famous dome, was a school) and many were left unaware of the effects of radiation for years (after Japan was invaded by the allies, there was a press censorship which prohibited publishing any pictures or information on the atomic bomb), children of those who survived the bomb are suffering the consequences even nowadays (many children were born with microcephaly – smaller brains)... the list is endless. So much harm was done, and all in a bid to stop WWII. I don’t want to mention Pearl Harbour here as I’m sure many think of Hiroshima as the ‘response’ to the people lost in the Hawaiian Islands but to me, either attacks were useless and senseless.
To give you an idea of how destructive a nuclear bomb could be AT PRESENT: if a hydrogen bomb was to be dropped on a city now, it would be 3100 times more powerful than the bomb dropped on Hiroshima... food for thought.
Lastly, we visited the A-bomb dome, which used to be a Commercial Exhibition Hall (designed by a Swedish architect in 1915): this was used as a point of reference for the Enola Gay when dropping the bomb. The bomb exploded 600 metres above, almost on top of this dome, which explains why the skeleton of the building remains. In the 1960’s some of the people of Japan wanted to demolish this last reminder of the atomic attack, but luckily, there were others who were opposed to the idea, as it was important for future generations to understand and never forget.
B & M

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