Hiroshima

After saying my heartfelt goodbyes to my parents, I headed down to spend some time in Hiroshima with fellow Shirakawa ALTs Liz and Phil. (Timmay didn’t make it because he had to work for a change hahahahahahahahahahahaha. And Andy didn’t because he hates us – who could blame him, not only are incredibly annoying, we’re also far better looking than he is).

Hiroshima isn’t quite the depressing place that I thought it would be. It’s very green (for a Japanese city, anyway) and it’s on the water. The sun was shining and the birds were singing, so it was all good.

The depressing part came later. For now, enjoy some beautiful photos of Liz and I taking a turn in the garden. And Liz eating meat on a stick. Mmmmm. Meat. On a stick.

Hiroshima – the depressing part

The A-bomb dome is well known as the symbol of the devastation of Hiroshima. One of the most amazing things about it for me was that there’s so much of it standing. It’s only when you see the photos that show that it was virtually the ONLY building still standing after the bomb was dropped that you realise the scale of the destruction.

There is also a famous church in Hiroshima which was built using the ashes and rubble left from the blast. While the building itself isn’t that amazing to look at, it has a weird kind of presence because you know that it was built literally from the ashes of the destruction of Hiroshima.

Probably the most disturbing part of my time in Hiroshima was the A-bomb museum. I visited during a national holiday and the place was packed with Japanese, with few foreigners in sight. As I walked through the graphic displays (including burned school uniforms, sections of mangled buildings and distressingly contorted body parts) I felt as if the Japanese in the room were staring at me, as if they were blaming me for the tragedy of Hiroshima. Although the museum supposedly creates a sense of hope for the future, I left feeling more worried than hopeful. The scale of the destruction wrought on Hiroshima was the result of what would these days be regarded as a “small” atomic weapon. It’s frightening to imagine what could happen if a larger weapon was used. And what the point of it’s use would be.