Post #13 - October 24, 2012 - Hiroshima, Japan

I need to preface this blog by saying that the internet connection at our hostel is too slow to upload any pictures. We will try to upload these as soon as possible. 

Jeff here. Today began with us waking up in Hiroshima having taken an overnight bus from Kyoto. It was 6am and we were pretty out of it, so we set off to find a place to grab a coffee and figure out how to get to our hostel. We headed into the Hiroshima Station, looked around a bit and found a McDonald's. We ordered two wonderfully caffeinated coffees and sat down to a breakfast of bananas, oranges, and some sweet little buns.

Our hostel, although recommended as the top stay in Hiroshima by our travel book, did not appear on its map. Instead, it gave the following directions: "From the station go immediately left along the train tracks..." Now, I'm no expert at giving directions, but when there are both north and south exits from a place, and that exit is not specified, saying "go left" pretty much loses all meaning. Anyway, we took a guess and it was correct.

We arrived at our hostel just before 8am, tossed our stuff into a luggage closet, and sat down in the kitchen for another coffee and to plan our day. We were in no rush to get going after our night on the bus! We decided to go to the Atomic Bomb Dome and the Peace Memorial Museum. So we jumped on a tram a couple minutes' walk from our hostel and in less than 20 minutes were standing at the Atomic Bomb Dome. The building, built in 1915, originally served as the Industrial Promotion Hall. It was one of the few buildings so close to the epicenter of the blast
that remained standing. Someone with really clear foresight decided to preserve the building after the war as a memorial, and it was declared a Unesco World Heritage Site in December 1996.

Approaching the building I felt a strange solemnity about the place. It was neither glamorous nor modest: it just was. A guardian of historical knowledge demanding never to be forgotten. It was here I read that about 200,000 people were killed by the explosion. Under other circumstances, that number would be too large to have much meaning, but the building itself seemed to give it meaning: the missing dome roof, the half-melted metal stairway, the twisted steel, the smashed cement. No force of nature could do this. At least, not one I have ever witnessed.

It was at this site that we met two people who seem to have devoted their lives to educating tourists on the horrors inflicted by the atomic bomb on Hiroshima. The man in the picture was in-utero during the explosion. Here is their picture:

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I didn't catch either of their names, but the woman in the picture talked to us for about 10 minutes and described some of the circumstances in Hiroshima before and after the bomb. It was an intense and emotional 10 minutes. She spent some time explaining the lives of the people of Hiroshima before the bomb and showed aerial photographs of what the city looked like before the explosion. I know little about Japanese history, but discovered they had been at war with China (in the Second Sino-Japanese war) on-and-off since 1931, with total war breaking out in 1937. At this time, there was a huge war effort going on in Japan, with even young school children participating in war-related activities in Hiroshima. These activities included creating fire breaks around important government buildings in the city, which mainly meant tearing down buildings. I also believe adults were conscripted to help in the war effort in one way or another, but not necessarily in military service. On the morning of August 6, 1945 two separate air raid sirens were sounded in Hiroshima: one early in the morning (3:00 am-ish), the other around 7:30 am. All-clear sirens were sounded soon after both. It was a bright and sunny August day, and after the all-clear siren rang out before 8:00 am in the morning, men, women, and children went about their day as usual. No one had any idea or warning that the clear August morning spelled the destruction of most everything and everyone they held dear.

The earlier air raid sirens were prompted by reconnaissance planes. Clear skies made the perfect conditions for the bomb drop. The nuclear warhead, named Little Boy and carried by the Boeing B29 Enola Gay, had no means by which to steer itself and had to be simply dropped out of the plane. A cloudy day over Hiroshima would have meant, likely, the cancellation of Hiroshima as a target. Due to the value of the bomb and the desire to hit the target as precisely as possible, the flight team had practiced the drop in the United States, as well as dropping dud bombs in cities across Japan. This major Hiroshima landmark became the visual cue for the bomb drop:

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The decision to use the atomic bomb on Hiroshima was calculated down to the smallest detail. The city was spread over just the right area that the maximum amount of damage would be inflicted. The height of 600 metres above ground level was chosen for the bomb to explode to ensure maximum destruction. Meteorological equipment were dropped into the area to measure the heat and air pressure of the blast. As we learned later, the bomb was also used as a political move to force the Japanese to surrender to the United States as opposed to Russia, which was increasingly becoming a threat to the Unites States.

At 8:15 am on August 6, 1945 the Enola Gay and her team achieved it's goal. The nuclear warhead detonated 600 metres above ground level a few hundred metres away from their target. That was irrelevant. In a split second, in all directions, total destruction resulted. Near the explosion point, called the epicenter, temperature reached a few million degrees Celsius. At the hypocenter, the point on the ground directly below the explosion, the temperature reached between 3000-4000 degrees Celsius. The force of the explosion caused air to rush away from the explosion at hypersonic speeds, more than 400 meters per second or over 1,400 km/h. Finally, there was the radiation, which was not well understood at the time, if at all.

Try to imagine, if you can, watching the meteorological equipment drifting slowly in the sky carried by parachutes only seconds later to be plunged into what might only be described as hell on earth. In an instant, you feel intense heat, pain, the sensation of being thrown off your feet. After regaining your senses, you look around and see utter desolation. Everything around you is destroyed. The street you were standing on is no more. The screams and cries of people everywhere fill your ears. And there is no explanation of what you have just experienced. As far as you know, a weapon of this nature does not exist. You have never heard the words "atomic bomb". Here is Hiroshima after the explosion:

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The effects of the bomb were varied depending on how far people were from the explosion, but all effects were gruesome, and many too terrible to imagine. If you were unlucky enough to be at just the right distance to not instantly be killed, the heat of the blast would have melted your skin. If you were somewhat further and directly exposed to the blast, your skin would have been charred black. Further out, various degrees of burns would have occurred depending on whether you were in direct line of sight of the blast. Stories tell of burned children wandering the devastated city asking for water, with many finding their final resting place in rivers and water basins trying to find respite from their burns.

One particularly moving story was of a high school-aged boy who was caught in the explosion while  taking down buildings to create fire breaks. After he regained consciousness, he ran to his home only to find it on fire with his mother trapped inside. The boy was able to put out the fire and save his mother. Later that day, with his mother and father by his side, he lay in his bed and asked for an ice cream. His father put a coin in his hand and told him that he could buy one with that. The boy took the coin, and quietly died from his burns.

Every time I think of the many stories I heard today, I realize that there are thousands, if not tens of thousands, of stories of equal or greater horror, many that have been forever lost in this great tragedy. The vast majority of these people were not in the military. They were simply living their lives. So much like everyone I know back home. Can I imagine those I love suffering the horrors of the atomic bomb? Not even close. But the people of Hiroshima lived that. And I now feel that I have taken a small piece of that suffering with me. And as hard as it is, I will hold it close to my heart for as long as I live.

Some of what I have described we also learned in the Peace Memorial Museum. This is housed within a huge park, all of which is dedicated to remembering the horrors of the bomb and to ensuring a future where there are no nuclear weapons. We spent many hours in the museum. It was difficult to pull away from the pictures, stories, and artifacts left behind by victims of the bomb.

What I have left out so far are details of the days, months, and years following the explosion. We learned a lot of what went on here during that time and I don't want to go into too much detail, but one of the most sinister aspects of nuclear explosions is the radiation. Even those who were unaffected physically by the blast began to show strange symptoms in the weeks and months following the explosion. At the time, doctors could not explain what was happening. This was radiation sickness. Once again, people were exposed to the horrors of nuclear weapons. The powerful radiation released by the bomb penetrated most materials, so being behind a wall during the explosion might have saved you from the heat and the physical blast, but it would not have saved you from the radiation. Various illnesses arose out of this, and many more people died in the month or so after the bomb. The mysteriousness of these diseases must have only added to the despair already felt by these poor people.

I would wager that Hiroshima is unlike nearly all places on earth. While the memorial is a reminder of destruction and suffering caused by atomic weapons, the city itself is a vibrant reminder that life goes on. That the people of Hiroshima decided to remember the horror of August 6, 1945 and not simply try to erase it from their memories is incredible. But that the people decided that the city should itself become an advocate for the abolishment of all nuclear weapons is truly heroic. So easily is human nature swayed toward anger, resentment, revenge, and hate it is remarkable that a city could suffer such tragedy and emerge as a symbol for world peace.

I am deeply moved by this city and its past. Today I stood at the spot 600 metres above which the atomic bomb detonated. Today I heard stories, saw pictures, and touched artifacts recounting that horrific event. Today I understood the minutest fraction of the suffering those people. Today I wept for Hiroshima.