Japan - Hiroshima: Remembering the inhumanity of Man

A trip to Japan would not be complete without visiting Hiroshima, the site of the first human city targeted by a nuclear attack by another group of humans, a sign that humanity had grown truly feral in our tribalism. From Hiroshima, I also went to Miyajima, an island in the Hiroshima Bay.

Hiroshima is around 315 kms from Kyoto, about 1 hour 42 minutes by the Shinkansen (bullet train). I just cannot fathom the speeds of Japan's rail network, coming from India. At the end, I gave up thinking of it as a "train" and instead thinking of it as a "plane" that makes it far easier to comprehend distances in familiar terms.

The Atomic Dome in Peace Memorial Park.

In 1945, the Americans carefully planned which city should be targeted by the atomic bomb. Obviously, the most important part was the amount of death and destruction that could be caused, and so the city should have at least a three mile radius and be reasonably well populated. A second criterion was its military importance. A third criterion was that the Americans believed that no American Prisoners Of War were being held in Hiroshima.

Around 85% of the Americans supported the dropping of the "Little Boy" bomb, and the death and destruction of 70,000 Japanese, in a Pew survey conducted at the end of 1945. By the end of that year, death by radiation poisoning and injuries had risen to 90,000-160,000.

The number of Americans supporting the A-bomb dropping on Hiroshima has gone down to 56% as of last year, but is still a majority. It is an indication of how the lizard brain of Homo Sapiens still dominates over rationality, divides us into tribes, and makes us the only species capable of genocide.

The A-dome is the only building to have survived, and has been carefully preserved so that future generations may learn from it.

 
 Much of the area around the Atomic Dome has been turned into a Peace Memorial Park, and there is a museum and also a number of memorials to the victims. The Motoyasu-Bashi bridge in the distance still remained standing after the blast.

Children's Peace Memorial Monument, made with funds collected from school children, to the memory of Sakado Sasi, a child who died of radiation poisoning. Sakado Sasi holds a wire crane aloft above her head.

In Japan, there is a tradition that if one makes a thousand cranes, they are granted one wish. Sakado Sasi's wish was to have a world without nuclear weapons. Thousands of children still offer origami cranes at the monument: on such naive hopes, surely one day the world will change.

Katsuzo Entsyba, the artist, wrote, “I want to sound the trumpet for peace in the search for a new future.”

 Hiroshima National Peace Memorial Hall. It is a somber place for reflection showing the surroundings as they were in 1945. At the end of the hall, there are clips from survivors who talk of the horrors of atomic war, and their individual testimonies.

Hiroshima Peace Memorial Musuem: a child's tricycle melted with the blast of the bomb. The child could well have been mine, it could well have been yours. What almost died that day was hope for humanity...

 Glass bottles fused from the heat of the blast and stuck together.

Cherry Blossoms at Hiroshima Castle.

 Hiroshima Castle.

 The ferry to Mijajima

 Floating Shrine at Itsukushima (Mijajima). The torii (shrine's gate) is covered under water at high tide and it seems to be floating in water.

 Five storied Pagoda (Go-ju-no-to) at Itsukushima.

 A market at Miyajima.

From up on high at Mijajima Island. Sometimes one forgets Japan is an archipelago actually made up of 6,852 islands. The four largest, Honshu, Hokkaido, Kyushu and Shikoku make up 97% of land area.

From high up on Mt.Minsen. I often wonder why others also want to climb to the highest point, why some people want to go where no one has gone before. Solo travel can be unbelievably peaceful, leaving you with your own thoughts.

"I stand here on the summit of the mountain. I lift my head and I spread my arms. This, my body and spirit, this is the end of the quest." - Anthem.

Reikado Hall, near Mt. Misen, where an eternal flame (Keizu-ni-ho) supposedly is kept burning since the last 1200 years. This flame served as the pilot light for the Flame of Peace at Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park.

 Misen Hondo hall

 The ropeway down from Mt. Misen to Itsukushima

 Itsukushima Shrine

 Another view of Itsukushima shrine by the seaside.

The floating shrine's Tori (gate) at Sunset. Shinto, Kami-no-michi ("way of the gods") is perhaps a religion/not-religion of Japan. It is an undefined religion, that means several things to several people, has local gods and spirits, concepts of purity and cleanliness, and of worshipping in shrines to gods, animals, emperors, spirits...

Only around 40% of Japanese say they are part of an organized religion (35% Buddhist, 2% Shinto, 2% Christian, 1% others).  But almost 80% have participated in some Shinto ritual, at some point in their lives.

As I leave Japan, I grow aware of how pitifully little one can learn in ten days, and how much more there is to marvel at.