On Sunday, Sept. 11,
the 10th anniversary of the terrorist
attacks on the U.S.,
we visited Hiroshima, Japan.
In the morning we boarded another
bullet train in Osaka
and traveled 2 hours South to Hiroshima.
What a BEAUTIFUL place!
August 6, 1945 at 8:15 am the US dropped
an atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan -
a city where the Army Marine Headquarters
were located and were large amounts of army supplies
were held and shipped during WWII.
REAL people lived there. People with families -
Mother, Father, CHILDREN.
Children who went to school, rode tricycles in the streets
& played on playgrounds.
The bomb DIRECTLY killed approximately
80,000 people and by the end of the year
the death toll increased to between 90,000-100,000
from injuries and radiation. Still more deaths would
follow in the years to come from the effects of exposure
to radiation - revealing itself in the
forms of cancer and leukemia.
The A-Bomb Dome
When the bomb dropped on Hiroshima
most of the city was completely leveled.
This building remained standing.
It is the main focus of the
Hiroshima Peace Memorial.
A reminder of PEACE not WAR.
--BEFORE--
--AFTER--
35 Years later the city is green
and flourishing.
Peace Memorial Park
The Museum was even more difficult,
for me, than the Holocaust Museum
in Washington D.C..
-- A FEW of the DISPLAYS
that brought me to TEARS --
A UNIFORM of a 13 year old girl
killed while walking to school.
A COIN PURSE of a teenage girl
who was - as told by her Mother -
"Sick that day and didn't want to go to school.
I made her go to school anyway. I killed my daughter!"
A PICTURE of a woman's back
burned brown with the print of her
kimono seared into her skin from the radiation.
A TRICYCLE rusted and corroded.
A 3 year old little boy was killed instantly
while riding the tricycle in the street.
The Father buried it with the child
"Knowing he would still want to ride it
because he was so small."
A truly HEART WRENCHING,
yet enlightening, visit
to HIROSHIMA.
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