I Heart Hiroshima (even more than before!)

Continuing on my adventure in Hiroshima I decided to visit the infamous Peace Park and Peace Museum, the site of the atomic bombing and the museum dedicated to ending nuclear weaponry, respectively. The whole experience was slightly surreal... to be standing in a place that 60 years ago was completely destroyed by the country I call home. And certainly as a historian, the museum was enlightening and I have learned and experienced so much more that I hope to impart to young students one day.

There are two photos that I took inside the museum although it was hard to take photos, actually. There were so many things I had to force myself to even look at, just to make me realize the gravity of that bomb, in all its ugliness and truth.

However, the photos I took were of things that symbolize much more hope than despair.



This is a picture of the paper cranes folded by Sadako, a little girl diagnosed with leukemia as a result of the bombing. She had the idea that if she folded a thousand of the teeny cranes, she would be healed. She died before she finished all one thousand, so her classmates finished the remaining cranes for her and today it is a symbol of both hope, perseverance, and community. Particularly in Hiroshima, the crane is a reminder of peace and a memorial has been constructed in Sadako's memory.

On a personal note, being the daughter of a Japanese woman, in our family we fold 1000 paper cranes for the weddings of relatives. It's a nice tradition that I hope to continue.... if I ever meet that lucky man! ;)

The following photo was also taken in the museum. On the day of the actual bombing, one photographer dared go into the city with a camera. He was only able to take 5 pictures of the victims before he was too paralyzed to continue. Walking through the museum a group of school girls were on a tour. They stopped at the photo and I snapped a picture, wondering what their impressions were.



All in all the museum and the park were, of course, sobering. It was a unique and heavy experience tempered with thoughts of how far our world has come since WWII... and realizing not much has changed, either.

I wonder what the historians will write about us some day.