Hiroshima Peace Memorials

August 11, 2007

Focusing on the history of Hiroshima as the recipient of the world’s first atomic bomb was intense and rather upsetting. It is one thing to read about the incident in a history class in the US, but quite another to meet with an actual survivor and see artifacts from that fateful day and see terrible images of destruction and death.

We began the morning meeting with Hiroshima area high school and college students. In smaller groups a few of each led us around the Peace Memorial Park and explained the monuments. We visited a memorial for the Korean people lost. Japan colonized Korea in 1910, and there were about 100,000 Koreans living (many not of their own will) in Hiroshima in August of 1945. We also saw the memorial for children. It is dedicated to one little girl, Sadako, who survived the blast but later died of leukemia (a common subsequent development from radiation). She believed that folding paper cranes in origami would bring blessings and sought to fold 1000, but never made it that far. Now, every year many people fold thousands of paper cranes in her honor and in the honor of all who died. I have learned this and have contributed quite a few myself.

Paper cranes, children/Sadako memorial,
















Below on right is the A-bomb Dome and the left is a mound that contains the cremated ashes of more than 70,000 people. In the front of it are Buddhist prayers on wooden sticks, and incense burns in front of that.

The A-bomb dome was also on the tour. It is part of an actual building still standing from the blast and is actually quite close to the epicenter, which was a hospital believe it or not. Despite sweltering heat today, it was a very good, sobering experience.

Left is the memorial for the Koreans who died.

After lunch with our small groups, we had a guest speaker who was a 74 year old woman who had survived the A-bomb. Her story was so sad, yet uplifting. She never spoke of pity and blame, only of the need for peace and her journey of forgiveness. Her courage and warm heart were amazing. Having suffered a stroke this past year, her speech was slow and her English a bit rough, but what she conveyed was clear as the blue sky. Perhaps the most interesting aspect to me of her story is what happened to survivors in Japan after the recovery. Many people, this woman included, were left with huge keloid scars from the massive burns they suffered instantaneously. In the Japanese communities after the war, people with visible injuries from the bomb were avoided and set apart from the rest. Mostly people were afraid that they were somehow contaminated and could spread radiation. This woman never married. It broke my heart to think of not only the destruction caused immediately by the bomb, but also the heartless ignorance of people of her same community. As she said, for people like her, it is always August 6. It never ends.

We immediately followed to the Peace Museum, which was horrifically crowded. Although I was seemingly followed by a man with a screaming little girl, I was able to see most of the exhibits. Most affecting, I suppose, were the artifacts from August 6, like shredded school uniforms, lunch boxes with charred food, and even a human shadow that was embedded into stone from the light of the blast.

After visiting Hiroshima, I don’t believe I could be exposed to any sadder experience not only wrought on human beings, but created and afflicted by us as well. I do indeed think military force is requisite for crazy people, but something like the A-bombs that were not only dropped on this beautiful city and its people, but also the people of Nagasaki, should NEVER happen. The city was mostly occupied by women, children, and the elderly. How could the American government ever find dropping a bomb a legitimate act of defense? I am appalled at the actions of my predecessors, not necessarily just Americans, but all people who wage wars and find them a necessary component of life. This may sound idealistic, but experiencing firsthand the absolute terror that lies beneath and within this city (a city that I could see myself living in!) makes everything all the more personal. It is one thing, for example, for President Bush to sit in the Oval Office and make declarations of war and extend the tours of Americans in Iraq, but put him in Baghdad for one day and have him be an innocent person fearing for their life, and see how he feels. We need to, each and every one of us, be more in touch with each other and with humanity in order to assure that nothing remotely similar to what happened in Hiroshima EVER happens again. I don’t think I can possibly every think differently about this issue after being here, seeing the before and after photographs of an entire city being wiped out in an instant. It is so heartbreaking. I urge you all to come visit here.