Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park
Written by: adekun on 5 February, 2008 7:14 am - Filed under: hiroshima
On Sunday we spent a few hours at the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum and Park. Although the setting is at odds to the camps at Auschwitz, it is none the less moving.
Hiroshima Memorial Cenotaph
I was keen to find out what the museum cited as reasons for the attack and what mention it gave to activities in Asia prior to WWII.
For me the often stated reason never answered the questions. Reading at school, it was easy to spot contradictions. It just seemed the most palatable. What does seem common is Truman’s and Tibbets’s sentiments, and that of Bomber Harris.
Hiroshima Aioi Bridge and Peace Memorial (A-Bomb Dome)
I was unaware of the forced demolished of homes to provide fire breaks. In addition to the civilians from neighbouring towns, schoolchildren were mobilized for demolition duty. At the time of the attack they were outside. The bomb was a little off target and detonated above the Shima hospital. A plaque marking the hypocentre can be found in front of an apartment block a street back from the Dome.
Hiroshima Peace Memorial (A-Bomb Dome)
There didn’t seem much information on the subsequent bombing of Nagasaki. The focus was on the after effects, the rebuilding and peace activities. Towards the end of the exhibition, of note was the numbers of times nuclear weapon use has since been contemplated. The 13 kiloton yield of ‘Little Boy’ compared to the 50 megatons of ‘Tsar Bomba’. While it’s all too easy to comment on the past, only the other week NATO’s top five were asserting “first strike nuclear option remains an indispensable instrument”.
kate
7 February, 2008 #
It was good to read this and see the photographs of the memorials.The Canal is beautiful.
susana
9 February, 2008 #
Definitely, I shall go to Hiroshima on my next trip to Japan on April^_^
adekun
9 February, 2008 #
I was a little early for the ume blossom, I guess more towards the end of the month. There’s the sakura a month or so after that, so Susana you might be in for a treat.
mss @ Zanthan Gardens
10 February, 2008 #
When I lived in Beppu-shi, I visited the Peace museum/park in Nagasaki on three different occasions. Each time was incredibly saddening and moving.
Have you ever read the book which has four eyewitness accounts of the bombing of Hiroshima? The accounts were published originally in a special edition of the New Yorker some time after the war. I don’t remember the name of the book but the accounts are riveting.
adekun
14 February, 2008 #
I suppose that’s why Nagasaki got little mention. I don’t know the book but have read many stories. Towards the end of the museum there are rows of screens with a bench in front where you can watch survivor testimonies.