Hiroshima
Monday was a bank holiday in Japan. It was the Respect for the Elderly day (yes, Japan has such a day, isn't it nice?).
Therefore, I decided to go to Hiroshima, which is in the western side of Japan. We only needed 4 hours to cover a distance of 800 km in the Shinkansen. We went to a couple of places more apart from Hiroshima, but our base was Hiroshima.
The first impression when you arrive to Hiroshima is that it's just another big japanese city... and that's impressive. I don't remember anything that has impacted me more than the Peace Memorial Museum. I can only compare this to the visit to Bergen Belsen during my Erasmus.
As you probably know, the first atomic bomb used with military purposes was dropped in Hiroshima in the First World War. It destroyed the whole city, killed half of the population and the rest were injured.
The Peace Memorial Museum is built very close to the place the A-Bomb exploded, in a memorial park, and has everything related to the A-Bomb. From the way the war started, the life before the war and the bomb, how the decision of using the atomic bomb was done (one of the reasons was just to justify the investment), why they chose Hiroshima, and of course the consequences.
And are countries still considering using nuclear weapons again?
Update: A comment about this last picture I forgot to write at the beginning. That's a paper crane. It became a symbol of hope, after Sadako, a girl with leukemia after the A-Bomb, started doing 1000 of them. There is a japanese saying that states that the person who does 1000 paper cranes, will have one wish become true. Sadako didn't manage to finish the task, but her friends did it for her. From that moment all over Japan, paper cranes are done and sent to Hiroshima.
Therefore, I decided to go to Hiroshima, which is in the western side of Japan. We only needed 4 hours to cover a distance of 800 km in the Shinkansen. We went to a couple of places more apart from Hiroshima, but our base was Hiroshima.
The first impression when you arrive to Hiroshima is that it's just another big japanese city... and that's impressive. I don't remember anything that has impacted me more than the Peace Memorial Museum. I can only compare this to the visit to Bergen Belsen during my Erasmus.
As you probably know, the first atomic bomb used with military purposes was dropped in Hiroshima in the First World War. It destroyed the whole city, killed half of the population and the rest were injured.
The Peace Memorial Museum is built very close to the place the A-Bomb exploded, in a memorial park, and has everything related to the A-Bomb. From the way the war started, the life before the war and the bomb, how the decision of using the atomic bomb was done (one of the reasons was just to justify the investment), why they chose Hiroshima, and of course the consequences.
And are countries still considering using nuclear weapons again?
Update: A comment about this last picture I forgot to write at the beginning. That's a paper crane. It became a symbol of hope, after Sadako, a girl with leukemia after the A-Bomb, started doing 1000 of them. There is a japanese saying that states that the person who does 1000 paper cranes, will have one wish become true. Sadako didn't manage to finish the task, but her friends did it for her. From that moment all over Japan, paper cranes are done and sent to Hiroshima.
8 Comentarios:
En algun sitio he leido que eligieron Hiroshima , porque en ese momento el cielo estaba despejado
And that last picture?
@Dolores: Tenían varias ciudades en mente. Necesitaban una ciudad suficientemente grande (3 km de radio) para poder demostrar el "poder" de la bomba. Así que dejaron de bombardear todas las ciudades grandes de Japón para que la comparación antes/después fuera clara.
@Serena: That's a paper crane. It became a symbol of hope, after Sadako, a girl with leukemia after the A-Bomb, started doing 1000 of them. There is a japanese saying that states that the person who does 1000 paper cranes, will have one wish become true. Sadako didn't manage to finish the task, but her frieds did it for her. From that moment all over Japan, paper cranes are done and sent to Hiroshima.
Wow... the paper crane story is wonderful! You could have explained it in the main post!
You are completely right. ;)
Thanks for the explanation!
Hola Nacho!
Fue durante la 2da guerra, no la primera. :)
A mi me impacto tb muchisimo el museo sobre la bomba nuclear. Y la pared donde te salen los telegramas que mandan a todos los paises que se estan planteando usar la bomba en algun momento. Extrañadamente, suelen ser siempre los mismos... Y no siempre los a quien se espera.
@Serena: You are welcome!
@Raph: Tienes toda la razón; fue en la segunda guerra mundial... No se en que andaría pensando yo...
Es cierto que la parte final, la que es menos histórica, y mas de actualidad, te destroza todavía mas. Se ve que esto no ha acabado, y que hay muchos países que se están preparando no-se-para-que...
Recuerdo una de las frases que decia que en los años 70, tropecientos países acordaron la "no proliferación nuclear", y que en el siglo XXI, unos cuantos paises de esa lista han hecho ya "pruebas"... Es decir, llevan todos estos años incumpliendo sistemáticamente el acuerdo... :(
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