究極の旅行: A Sombre Day

Your erstwhile correspondent is back this time writing with a heavy heart.

When we decided we were going to Japan, I knew Hiroshima was a must see for me.

I was not disappointed. The day in Hiroshima was a very special day. But a very sad and sombre experience.

I have watched the 1970 series the World at War several times, the most recent being only a few months ago. I am well aware that over 50 million people were killed in that war and that this event is just another sad part of that terrible period of history.

I have recently watched an SBS series on the dropping of the Atomic Bomb on Hiroshima. One thing that I recall from that series was the drawings of a Japanese artist that displayed through his images the hell of the Zombie like creatures that were created by the event and lived through the intense heat and fires.

Our Hotel was only a 10 minute walk from the Peace Memorial Park where the Memorial Cenotaph was built in 1952. As I walked around and read the memorials I was impressed that the Japanese acknowledged their role in the war, they did not lay blame, they talked of peace and prayed that the world would not use these devices ever again.

Several images of the memorials stick in my mind, the first is of the A-Bomb Dome. It is staggering that this building, so close to the hyper centre could survive, when everything around it was flattened.

Another image is of the Atomic Bomb Memorial Mound where 70,000 unidentified bodies are buried.

There is a superb museum in the park that provides lots of facts and the stories of individuals impacted by the A-bomb. Whilst walking around the museum I found my self being overcome by emotion, so much so, that after a while I simply could not take any more and had to go and sit down to get my emotions under control.

A small amount of facts might help - at the hyper centre and for a radius of about 0.5 km the temperature reached 3000C and the wind blasts were at 1000 km per hour. 70,000 people died on the first day (of an estimated population of 350,000) and the same number again died within the next few months. Many others died from radiation poisoning and cancers etc over the next decades.

Meryl, Penny and I all took time to ring the Peace Bell and pray for a peaceful world. I think it is a good thing for us to see the horrors of war. Who could not want Peace after seeing the horrendous things that happen during wars!