Hiroshima: Reflections on August 6, 1945

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This entry is for reflecting on my trip to Hiroshima on April 1 and I'm already hard on myself for not writing this sooner while it was more fresh in my mind but now I have time and I will begin. This is a long entry so if you're in a hurry I'd just wait to read it. Also, I expect a somber tone but this was a somber experience so that makes sense.. here goes:

Today, many classmates and I went to Hiroshima, the first city in the history of the world to be the victim of an atomic bombing. There, we listened to an atomic bomb survivor speak of her experiences on that day, and visited the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum, dedicated to the the promotion of peace and the abolition of nuclear weapons in the world. We also spent time in the Peace Memorial Park where there is the A-Bomb Dome, an international symbol of the are monuments dedicated to different victims of the bombing. The entire experience was harrowing and and I felt it was very effective in forcing me to evaluate my opinions of war and of its destructive capacities, especially the destructive capacities of nuclear weapons.

We traveled there on the shinkansen (bullet train) which was, as its name implies, very fast and got us to Hiroshima from Osaka in something like two hours. Upon arriving, we immediately headed towards the Peace Memorial Park where our first sight as we exited the trolley was the A-Bomb Dome. It was a shell of a building, made smaller by the large buildings across the road. The A-Bomb dome, previously the Hiroshima Prefectural Industrial Promotion Hall, stands as a symbol of the destruction unleashed upon Hiroshima on August 6, 1945. The bomb itself exploded 600 meters over the building and everyone inside was instantly killed. The building survived because of its strong construction and its position in relation to where the bomb exploded (when atomic bombs explode the blast itself rapidly attenuates by distance so a lot of the buildings near the hypocenter which were designed to resist earthquakes survived although they were later destroyed by the fire, ) It is the only such building preserved in Hiroshima, although this was done amid controversy among some citizens who did not want any such reminders, and in December 1996 it was preserved as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. For myself, I was not greatly moved. Perhaps I was numbed or not yet able to grasp its meaning. I took pictures, and after I realized I could not make the destruction real in my mind through this site, I moved on after being interviewed by some young Japanese students wanting to practice their English.

From there, I crossed the bridge toward the main part of the Peace Memorial Park where I was stopped by a young man asking me to sign a petition. I thought the petition was against nuclear weapons although it was later mentioned in class and may have been a petition against war in general. Regardless, I could not sign it. For one I'm not a big fan of simply signing my name on a sheet of paper when I don't really know anything about the organization being supported, and also I did not and still do not feel that I know enough about nuclear weapons and war to have come to a conclusion on its values, for good or for bad. So I apologized and kept walking.

Here, the most moving monument for me was the Children's Peace Monument. This was dedicated to all of the children who were victims of the atomic bomb. It's creation was inspired by the story of Sadako Sasaki who died of leukemia ten years after the atomic bombing. She was a victim of the atomic bomb when she was two years old but seemed healthy until sixth grade when she was diagnosed with leukemia. She believed that folding paper cranes would help her recover and kept folding htem until she died, eight months later. Her death inspired many people to fold paper cranes and they have since become a symbol for peace. At the monument itself, there are paper cranes everywhere in many colors. They used to be in the open but now they are behind glass because, sadly, someone once set fire to the paper cranes at the monument.

This monument (as I move momentarily from my cold analysis) was especially moving for me because it represents those who had the absolute least to do with the war. Their lives were just begun and were then ended, or drastically changed, in an action their parents much less themselves did not understand in the least. This monument represented the innocent desire for peace among children, who do not understand why one person would kill another. The cranes, previously mentioned, are organized to form messages such as 'peace', and 'no more war' and are simply desires to take needless pain from the world.

After this I visited the Flame of Peace which is to be lit until all nuclear weapons are abolished from the earth. This is a noble goal but I am skeptical that it will ever happen, at least not for a very long time. It is still a powerful symbol however, but again did not inspire me very much. I'm searching for a reason why but I'm not quite sure. It just does not seem to convey the tragedy for me in the same way that individual stories do.

So, from here I broke away from the somberness and went to have lunch with Katie, Jonna, and Jenn. Katie and Jonna wanted to go to an slightly expensive Italian Restaurant though so Jenn and I found a park bench and had the lunches that we had brought of sandwiches, fruit, nuts, raisens, and cookies. yum.

Now, it was time to go to listen to Ms. Yamaoka speak. To say this was an amazing opportunity would be an understatement. I feel privileged to have had the opportunity to listen to a survivor of the atomic bomb speak and humbled by her experiences. It would be impossible for me to convey her experiences to you in the way that she related them to us so here's my offer, I have a DVD of her presentation, if you want to borrow it just get in touch and I'll copy and send it when I get back to the states.

After listening to her speak we visited what was, for me, the most meaningful/personal experience yet which, along with the Children's Peace Monument and Ms. Yamaoka's presentation, moved me to silent tears. This exhibit was artwork, submitted by victims of the bombing, along with short descriptions of the event that had taken place. The art ranged from scribbled, child-like art to the more technical although most, naturally, represented untrained hands desparately trying to put experience to paper in any way that they could. Pictures ranged from views of the atomic bomb itself as it exploded to emotionally charged stories of loved ones struggling to find each other. We moved very slowly through this exhibit.

After this we went to an exhibit which involved some of the only photographs of Hiroshima during that time that survived censorship. Most of the photos taken were destroyed by the government along with the negatives. Again, to see photos of people undergoing this suffering was hard to swallow but worthwhile (these are the pictures surrounding this entry).

From here we went to the main entrance of the museum (we hadn't even gone in yet) and paid a tiny sum of 50 yen to enter. The first area was dedicated to the history of Hiroshima and to the events leading up to the atomic bombing including an examination of the reasons the decision was made. If you're curious about this just ask me. For me there were two exhibits in this area which I found especially interesting. The first, was a modeled city scape of Hiroshima before and after the bombing. It put very clearly into one's mind how much was actually destroyed. Not much remained in the second model. The second exhibit I especially appreciated in this area was a wall which had engraved copies of all letters that mayors of Hiroshima had sent to world leaders. Every time a country tested a nuclear weapon the major of Hiroshima would write a letter to the leader of that country asking him to cease. All of the mayor's letters remain unanswered. Can you guess why?

After this we went upstairs and looked at exhibits showing more of the damage that was done and a little bit about the types of people hurt. This area didn't stick out to me as much so I moved on.

The next section talked about the destructive capacity of nuclear weapons themselves. It examined the damage done and compared it to the nuclear weapons that now exist. Really though, there is no comparison. The nuclear weapons there are now make the atomic bomb look like kids toys, The largest to date was a hydrogen bomb tested by Russia in 1961 had 3300 X the power of the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima. I can hardly imagine the destruction of the atomic bomb much less a bomb 3300X its size.

From here most of what we saw was artifacts from the blast. We had to a hurry a bit because we needed to find a hotel for the night in Miyajima. A few things stuck out though:

Most was the preserved front of the building where the shadow of a human being, who was instantly disintegrated, was preserved. It's rather haunting to see how human beings simply evaporated. Another artifact was a watch that stopped the exact minute (8:15a.m.) the atomic bomb struck. Also, many ruined articles of clothing and personals such as lunch boxes were shown.

After this were sitting areas where you could listen to interviews of survivors but I moved on because my friends (Katie and Jonna) had already been waiting on me for a while. Jenn came out shortly after I did but she had to catch the shinkansen back home that night because she had a field trip to Kyoto the next morning for her art class.

Katie, Jonna, and I and took a bus to the port where we caught a ferry to Miyajima. We met Kieran, Yohei, Natalia, Francisco, Filipe, and Juan-David there. Katie and Jonna got a hotel but it was a bit pricey for the rest of us so Kieran and Yohei went back to Hiroshima to find a capsule hotel and Natalia later joined them. We went to an izakaya but everybody was really quiet and somber, quite a change. Francisco, Filipe, Juan-David, and I slept outside and the night and the following day were conducted in Spanish and was un poco dificil. We visited temples in the morning, had curry for lunch, and took the locals home arriving around 7 or 8. We had a good time at Miyajima but I just wanted to shorten my comments about it so as not to overshadow the main point of this blog.

Anyway that's all. Hope everyone's ok. I wrote coldly about my experience because I'm not talented enough to write about it any other way. I was greatly moved by my visit and it makes me really consider not just how bad nuclear weapons are, but how bad war is itself. It's not pretty and I'm not sure there ever are any winners but I am still not convinced that it is not necessary. I have lots more to learn.

I also need to give credit to the Peace Memorial Museum in Hiroshima for unofficially lending me some pictures for this entry. I accidently formatted the weekend's pictures and had to improvise. I should be getting some from friends and I may add those sometime if they're good.

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Photos

Seeking water, reached the cistern, then ran out of strength
People flocked to the fire cisterns. They would take a drink and suddenly drop dead. The corpse of a pregnant young woman floats in this cistern. My heart aches as I use this red paint.

A girl clung to her mother who was barely breathing because of injuries over her whole body.
It was probably not a coincidence that the mother was critically wounded while her daughter was virtually unscratched. The mother was barely breathing. Several hours later, the mother was piled onto a truck like a piece of trash to be taken for cremation. The child was taken somewhere by someone who would take care of her. Thus, they parted forever. If the daughter lived, she would be 30 now. How would she know anything of her mother or her relatives?

The burned skin on both of this man
After finally managing to crawl out of our collapsed house, I saw our next-door neighbor for the first time. The skin on both arms had peeled off and hung from his fingernails. He was desperately looking for his child. Both he and the child died.

Comments

[Chelle]

Wow
That must have been an interesting experience. Certainly, there's nowhere in Sweden like that since they haven't had a war in...500 years or so and I think the one then was just something with Finland. I think I'd love to borrow that DVD when you get back. Good luck on your stay!