Hiroshima

Over my New Year break I travelled to a city I had wanted to visit for a long time. Located less than an hour northeast of Kitakyushu by bullet train, Hiroshima was the site of the world’s first nuclear strike on August 6^th 1945. During my time there, I discovered sixty years after the devastation of the Atom bombing, the city has transformed itself into a vibrant and proactive centre for world peace.

Although I did some sightseeing around the city my main purpose for visiting Hiroshima was to see the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum and its’ surrounding Peace Park built at ground zero of the explosion.

After a short street car ride from the train station I steeled myself for what I thought might be a challenging visit to the Museum. The displays begin with background information that takes you back to a bleak 1940s landscape in which empire of Japan and the allied powers were fighting fiercely for control of the Pacific. The extent of Japan’s military efforts to control a larger Asian empire during the ‘30s and ‘40s is examined in detail, and the museum doesn’t shy away from Japan’s responsibility for igniting the conflict.

America’s ‘Manhattan Project’ to develop nuclear technology to help end the war is explored and many high level documents are displayed regarding the decision to use the bomb when it became available. Amongst the minutes and letters there were several troubling texts detailing government officials concerns that the near two billion dollars the US government invested in the project would be wasted unless there was a chance to test the weapon in a ‘war situation’. According to more documentation Hiroshima was declared a highly suitable target as much for its’ large urban area (which at over three miles in diameter allowed the effects of the bomb to be accurately observed), as for possessing a moderate sized military base. The possibility that financial or scientific motives may have played a role in the use of the bomb was disturbing.

There was also a lot of information regarding how a nuclear weapon works. Even a scale replica of the bomb dropped on Hiroshima was on display. Nicknamed ‘Little Boy’ because of its relatively small size, it was still four tonnes in weight and contained fifty kilograms of Uranium.

At 8.15am August 6^th 1945 ‘Little Boy’ was detonated 600m above the city centre. Heat rays of up to five thousand degrees centigrade instantly killed thousands and destroyed nearly all buildings within a 2km radius. One of the more sobering exhibits was photos of the city before and after the blast. Before; a flourishing city of 350,000, within seconds a desert wasteland with only a few, barely standing buildings remaining. Many objects that survived the blast were on display. Including stone surfaces with shadows scorched into them by the blinding flash and everyday items like bottles and coins melted by the heat.

The effect of the bomb on Hiroshima’s people was a lot more frightening. Although thousands were instantly vaporised in the fireball perhaps those people were luckier than many others that survived. Radiation began to claim lives of people exposed to the blast in the first few days. A black rain carrying large amounts of radioactive material was carried on the wind to more distant areas also. The museum details the acute effects of radiation poisoning which destroyed thousands of lives and are still being felt to this day. These include lethal cancers and painful, disfiguring Keloid scars among other terrible ailments. It was tough to take, but to their credit the exhibitions don’t overdo the shock factor and focus instead on the resilience of the survivors who stayed to rebuild their city, despite the fear they too might contract ‘radiation sickness’.

The final section of the museum concentrated on nuclear weapons today. One exhibit explains the fundamental flaw in the seemingly widely accepted theory of nuclear deterrence. Nowadays countries continue to amass large stockpiles of these weapons to deter each other from aggression, but if a large scale conflict occurs and one party loses restraint we may be facing the end of the world. It’s thought that the smoke and soot from nuclear attacks on cities could reduce levels of sunlight enough to cause global temperatures to drop drastically; leading to severe frosts and widespread starvation. This is what’s known as a ‘nuclear winter’.

Another exhibit shows the growing number of countries that have nuclear weapons and how many each state possesses. It asks why it is that although the world powers have agreed to reduce their stockpiles, countries like the US still have over 10,000 warheads. An exert from a letter to the American President from the mayor of Hiroshima regarding the United State’s nuclear program highlights another major concern in today’s world. He questions whether developing more nuclear weapons, and especially miniature nuclear technology is really going to make America more secure in the war against terrorism. It certainly makes you think.

Dealing with the emotional subject of the atomic bombing is surely not an easy task but I think the curators have done a good job with their exhibitions. The Displays have a good balance of compassion, education and analysis that leaves you with the logical conclusion that such an event should never happen again.

From the museum I made my way through Hiroshima’s spectacular peace park. It was constructed after the war as a memorial to the victims of the bombing with the goal of helping to abolish nuclear weapons and achieve a realization of world peace. There were many great and inspirational sights here including the famous 'Genshi Baku Dome'. This was a popular European style public building at the time of the blast but became a skeletal ruin after the bomb detonated only 150 metres away from it in 1945. Although badly damaged, it was the only building in the blast area to remain standing. In the years that followed many wanted to demolish the Dome, but it remains today as a reminder of the destructive force of nuclear weapons and as a powerful symbol of resilience.

One of the more moving memorials is the Children’s peace monument which was erected to the memory of Sadako Sasaki and all the other children who perished as a result of the bomb. Sadako was just two at the time of the blast and she became an active schoolgirl before she was diagnosed with radiation induced Leukaemia at age eleven. During her illness Sadako took comfort in an old Japanese myth that says anyone who folds one thousand paper cranes will have their wish granted. She folded over a thousand in the hope she would be cured, but sadly she died aged just twelve. Her courage inspired her classmates to publish a collection of her letters to raise money for the monument which was completed in 1958. It depicts her standing high above a concrete bell tower with her arms outstretched triumphantly, holding a huge crane. Inside the tower is the inscription ‘This is our cry, this is our prayer, peace in the world’. There are glass display structures around the statue housing countless thousands of colourful paper cranes sent by children around the world for the cause of peace.

There are many other powerful memorials to various people or groups who died during the attack. In the centre of the park is the Cenotaph for the A-Bomb Victims where a memorial ceremony is held each year on August 6^th. It’s designed in an arch shape to symbolise shelter for the souls of those who perished. In a stone chest beneath the arch is a registry which holds the names of all those who died because of the bomb. To date it holds over 200,000.

Rising out of the nearby pond is a concrete pedestal shaped like two upturned hands, from which the ‘Flame of peace’ burns. It was lit in 1964 and will burn continuously until all nuclear weapons are destroyed. I hope I can return to Hiroshima in my lifetime to see it extinguished forever.