Winter Trip 2011: Hiroshima

The afternoon of the 19th we got back on the Shinkonsen and took another two hour ride to Hiroshima. The train ride went well and Noah again fell asleep before we even got out of the train station. We walked to the hotel and dropped off our bags. On to a taxi to take us to the A Bomb Memorial. Seeing the bombed out building and pictures of the devastation from that day is probably one of the most memorable moments of my life. Standing in front of it imagining seeing it first hand...with a grimace and a churning stomach. The building has been preserved from that day in history. We walked around the park to see many of the memorials that evening before it dark. It was sickening to feel the empathy towards the victims. That night I had a horrible nightmare that the U.S. government dropped a nuclear bomb in an Indian Reservation located in Ferdinand. I still remember the dream and the feeling of utter devastation I felt. I remember the feeling of crying uncontrollably. I woke up with tears in my eyes. The next day we got up and went back to the park to see the museum. They had many artifacts from that day along with pictures and models to piece together what had happened that day. I know the U.S. says that lives were saved by the dropping of those bombs in Japan...but stand in an exhibit next to a pile of fingernails and skin...to a pile of hair...all that was left of those two people. Identified only by the ring in the pile or the hair bow laying in the hair. And then that feeling of "my country's rightness" quickly goes away. Stand next to the river where in that exact spot thousands of people perished upon each other as they went to quench their intolerable thirst from being burnt from the inside out. It was sickening. My stomach is churning as I write this. Of those that survived their DNA was altered and they became sick as the years passed. The nuclear rain poured down all across Japan causing thousands and thousands of more people to feel the long lasting toll of radiation poisoning...even children that were in their mother's womb. The mayors of Hiroshima since then have wrote a letter to each world leader following nuclear testing...they have written over 500 letters. The city has and continues to push for the ban of nuclear weapons...90% of these weapons belong to the U.S. and Russia. In the museum, Japan also told of the war tragedies that they did to the countries they occupied in the Pacific. They were in no way pointing the finger at the U.S. That one page in the U.S. History book Junior year was suddenly very alive. Zack says that him along with a few friends were probably laughing in the back of the classroom saying that "they deserved it". Is that what we were taught? Japan did so many horrible things during the war that they deserved to have nuclear bombs dropped upon them? It was the right choice. I'm not sitting here debating whether it was the right choice or not...but saying that it was sickening. We left the park and went to visit the Hiroshima Castle...well a replica since the original was destroyed by the bomb. Zack enjoyed it but my head and heavy heart were still at the park. This short visit to Hiroshima expanded my world ten fold...had a huge impact on me. So much that I would tell you to visit Japan just to go to Hiroshima.

We left that late afternoon for a four hour ride on the Shinkonsen to the Shinagawa station. Two young Japanese girls sat across from us and entertained Caraline for 30min...and then took Noah for 30min...we were sad when they got off the train! LOL And then it took us about 90 minutes to make it back to the base. Noah and Caraline took turns crying on the train ride back to the base during that 90 minutes. It was nine that night and each one wanted their bed. Noah started crying when Caraline started crying...because she gets attention when she cries! The poor Japanese that were on the train with us! But we shall not be deterred...if the kids scream the whole way on the train then so be it...because we are here in Japan and I refuse to live out the time we have stuck in the U.S. (in Japan!)! We had a blast and even with the screaming train rides it was well worth it!