As we were speaking with her our train pulled up so we jumped on. She and another older man standing there told us to come back because it was the wrong train. Even though it was on our track it was some sort of express train. We may have been lost for hours without their assistance!
It did not take as long as yesterday before we did finally find our way to the correct platform to go to Hiroshima from Kyoto station. On most of the platforms there is a non-smoking sitting room or two where you can sit and wait for your train. We took up residency in there while we ate our sandwiches that we grabbed from the convenience store in the station. While we were sitting there an older man with very traditional attire came in and sat across from us and began to read. About 15 min later a geisha came in and sat next to him. They seemed to know each other and were speaking very animatedly together. It was so cool. We understood that they were most likely going to some sort of event or possibly a wedding and we did not want to bother them so we just went on about our business. About 3 minutes after she sat down, a foreign man with a huge camera came in and basically had it in their face before asking to take a picture. They politely consented but we definitely were not going to ask for a picture after that incident.
Not long after our train arrived and we were off to Hiroshima. The train ride was very pleasant and we were able to relax a bit. When we arrived we were very easily able to obtain directions to the Peace Park. Their tourist information is amazing here...depending on where you go. We got to hop on a street car and ride it several stops down before we were let off in front of the dome.
We had obtained an informational pamphlet which contained a map while at the station so we had a good idea of how to get around the park. Aside from the dome there are several other monuments and statues around the park. Kyle got several pictures as we were walking around.
Around the children's memorials, specifically the main one, there are all of these paper cranes. Children from Japan and other parts of the world fold these cranes and bring them to the park each year. There had to be a million in the one area and we saw a group bringing more. These represent cranes for peace and the hopes to end nuclear proliferation.
Almost every place we go, there are school children there on field trips. Today was the same. Most of the children seemed to be between the ages of 9 and 12. They were SO EXCITED to see us! Every time we passed a group there was at least one child who would see us and in a very heavy Japanese accent say "Hello"! If we responded then we usually had at least 5 or 6 other children in the group excitedly say "Hello" to see if we would respond. We did try our best to say "hello" to all of them in turn. This happened all day.
As we were walking into the main museum we were approached by a group of 4 or 5 children who came to ask us questions. In English they asked, "Do you have a minute so we can ask you some questions"? We said, "yes" then they said "thank you". One of the girls said, "My name is Minami. What is your name"? I said, "My name is Christine". Again they said "thank you" and then handed me a printed map of the world and asked me to "please write your name here". I wrote my name and she then said "what is your country"? I said I was from the USA, America. She asked that I "please circle your country". I did so and they said, "thank you" again. She then asked, "what is your favorite animal"? I said, "dogs" and they were very excited about that. She then said "thank you for your time, have a great day" and handed me this.
The grounds contain a special building made for housing the names, memoirs, and possessions of individuals involved in the bombing. Here we were able to observe a 360 degree view of the results of the bombing on the area. We were also able to sit and use a special system to view and listen to the stories of the survivors from that day. The stories ranged from a six year old talking about her parents struggling to locate each member of the family to parents who had to abandon their own children in burning, crumbled homes. Reading these stories was a bit difficult at times but seemed important. It was a very touching memorial to the people who went through this event.
Eventually we did make it in to the main museum and grabbed audio guides. Here, everything was fully in Japanese and English but we wanted to get the full experience. The first part of the museum is all about Hiroshima and its military affiliations up until the bombing. There was a section that focused on the US's decision to bomb Hiroshima. This showed documentation and explained how and why the decision was made. It also explained the delivery method via the Enola Gay. Also included in this area were displays of Hiroshima before and after the bombing. This information was very educational and seemingly very objective.
There was a huge display covering several walls of pleas from the mayor of Hiroshima that had been sent to countries every single time a nuclear test had occurred. There was a letter written to President Obama from October of this year.
The first half of the second floor showed the relief efforts and the rebuilding of Hiroshima after the bombing. Part two was full on displays of how nukes work, their effects, who has them, how many, and what can happen if possession of nukes continues.
We took a seat in the gift shop area for a while as our feet were already complaining at us. We had a nice rest before moving on to the final area which was in an adjoining building. I do not believe that either of us were ready for what we walked into. This building contained some very graphic portrayals of the effects of the bombing. There were several articles on display here and each had an audio story to go along with it. It was pretty intense and educational.
The red ball is the fireball created by the bomb exploding above the ground in that spot according to scale
The non-white mark on the step in the middle is the shadow of a man who was waiting for the bank to open. His body shielded the concrete preventing it from being scorched like the rest.
That is a glass shard that was embedded into concrete
Small glass bottles that were fused together by the blast's heat
Other various fused items
This seemed to be one of the most crowded areas of the whole museum so we were sort of shuffled around a bit. When we finally did make our way out we sat as soon as we could. School children continued to hail us as we sat looking out the windows at the park. Eventually a group of about 10 children came up and started speaking with Kyle. They asked him his name and where he was from. He said the USA, but some of them seemed confused so he said the United States of America, the US. I almost lost it because one of the girls who seemed really confused finally got this dawning expression on her face and said, "OOOOH, Spain". The other students corrected her and then they said, "thank you, good bye" and were on their merry way.
Reflections on the day:
I think the school children may have been assigned the task of speaking with a certain number of foreigners. We did see a few other people being pulled to the side by the kids for questioning. It was really sweet and I am glad their teachers assigned this task to them.
At the beginning of the day as we were walking the grounds Kyle mentioned just how amazing it was that we were at this place, able to walk around and visit with the people. We discussed this a bit but it really did not sink in for me (Chrissy) until later. Now thinking back on it I get a little misty eyed every time I think about how far things have come. The fact that not only were we welcomed to the park, but that we had all of these precious children interacting with us was really amazing. Only a few decades ago we were at war with them and they with us. It got so bad that we actually dropped an atomic bomb on them and now we were walking freely through that very spot and were welcomed with open arms. It is a huge deal that we could go there and that we were treated so warmly by the people there.
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