I make no apology for reposting a post from April when we visited Hiroshima. Today we remember the bomb which devastated Hiroshima seventy years ago, but for the victims, survivors and their families they re-live this day, every day. Sadly, in wars attrocities are committed by all sides and certainly millions of people suffered extreme cruelty at the hands of the Japanese army. However, this was a most terrible price for the citizens of Hiroshima and Nagasaki to pay, and I can’t help but wonder whether things could have been done differently to achieve the surrender of Japan, which was being negotiated.
Our day started with a trip into the city, mostly rebuilt after 1945, where the Sakura (cherry blossom) was beginning to come into full bloom.
We began with the castle, which was devastated in the nuclear bombing. One tower was rebuilt in the 1950’s.
Words cannot adequately describe the feeling of visiting the A-Bomb Dome, Peace Park and Museum, so I’ll let a few of our photographs speak for us. The testimony of the survivors was very moving.
The dome is in the process of being surveyed…
Part of a beautiful cylindrical mosaic inside the memorial. Each tile of the mosaic represents a person who died in the aftermath of the bombing.
A young girl who developed leukaemia following the bombing believed the story that if you were to fold a thousand paper cranes your wish would come true. As she struggled with her illness she folded over fifteen hundred. Sadly her wish didn’t come true and they were given out at her funeral. They have now become a symbol of peace and every person entering the Memorial is given a tiny paper crane.
It didn’t seem right to take any photographs inside the museum. The reconstuctions reminded me of Oradour sur Glane.
Are wars really necessary? Surely people can get along with out killing thousands for what is generally greed. Great post and a very sad memory.
ReplyDeleteHope you are well Diane
Excellent post Gaynor. Lets hope (but I fear not) that we have learned something from such tragedy. I am quite sure that I would find a visit to those sites profoundly moving.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you Craig. We can but hope..
DeleteMy Dad was a Jap POW from the fall of Singapore to the end of the war...
ReplyDeleteon the 9th of August, he was in an opencast copper mine just outside Nagasaki...
nuff said!
He, and you as his family, will have suffered unspeakably on all counts. Did he talk much about it?
DeleteInteresting but sad post. Sadly us humans learn nothing and continue to fight with each. Perhaps we will have world peace one day x
ReplyDelete