Hiroshima

I've been thinking about Hiroshima - the bomb part - for a while and, truthfully, there's no good time to write about something this heavy. And yet, truthfully, this topic is important on many levels and demands reflection.

So, what better time to reflect than the day after I got in a huff about a casual encounter with a cashier at Ross? (#firstworldproblems, #getsomeperspective, #privilege)

As I mentioned in my blog post while we were there, the town is lovely. It is beautiful and upbeat and lively and fun.

This building is called the "A-Dome." Located just a few meters from the hypocenter of the bomb, it miraculously survived the blast.

On the morning of August 6, 1945, an atomic bomb was dropped on the city of Hiroshima by the Enola Gay. (The Enola Gay, in spite of its legacy, is a surprisingly small aircraft. It's housed in the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum in Dulles, Virginia.) The city was just waking up and getting moving. About 600 school children were working on clearing houses in order to create more effective fire lanes.

It is said that America dropped the bomb(s) to swiftly and efficiently end the war. It is said that the bombs were retaliation for Pearl Harbor. It is said that the Japanese were never going to surrender. It is said that the sudden loss of life prevented the further loss of life had the war continued to drag out.

The fire blast following the mushroom cloud obliterated just about everything in a 2-mile radius. Which is why the remaining building - and a handful of trees! - are so miraculous. They are clearly marked. They are set apart within the city.

One of the trees that survived the atomic bomb.

A memorial which contains two flames: one from the Hiroshima fire and one from Nagasaki.

The pilot of the Enola Gay missed his mark by a hundred meters or so. He was aiming for a T intersection of a bridge. The water under that bridge, a small river which runs through the city, was high that day. It is said that the people on fire rushed into its waters, turning it into a mass grave.

After the blast, people stumbled through the rubble, skin melting off their faces and fingertips. Shredded clothing still remains, on display in the Peace Museum, along with hair, tattered school books, and the rusty shell of a baby's tricycle. There is an entire entrance to a building on display, stone steps, where there is a shadow embedded. The person who had been sitting there simply evaporated, but the split second of the blast preserved the person's shadow in the rock.

Hiroshima was not a military target in the sense that America was aiming to kill soldiers only. While there was a major military command center in the city, this was also, undeniably, a strategic decision to kill a city of noncombatants.  

In the museum are petition books in many languages, for people to sign as a plea to destroy all nuclear weapons.

The memorial. See the A-Dome in the center?

We were in Hiroshima at the same time as the G7 summit. The only thing anyone was talking about was President Obama's anticipated visit to lay a wreath at the memorial. Welcome signs were all over. The American flag hung alongside the Japanese flag on many buildings around the hypocenter area.

Reporters of all kinds, along with police, pretty much took over the city. There were some protests, but they were small and relatively quiet. We saw many people with shirts that said, "APOLOGIZE to the Koreans killed by the A-bomb." (Many Koreans were in Hiroshima at that time, serving as laborers for Japan.)

It is said that America should apologize.

"In the same year that Japan's parliament was debating a resolution to apologize for its role in WWII, George H.W. Bush refused the suggestion that he should apologize for atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. He called the idea of apologizing for the bombs 'rank revisionism'. " **

We were on another island while President Obama and Prime Minister Abe laid the wreaths down at the Memorial and gave speeches. I'm curious to know what Obama said and if there was an apology or a hint of one. I keep thinking I should look it up on the internet. And I keep procrastinating because this is such a depressing topic.

To what extent is the current generation a spokesperson for the past? What role, really, does apology play? And yet, reflection is so important. Can't we express how sorry we are, presently, as we stand in a place of such tragedy?

This is the view of the Peace Museum from the Memorial. Look at the line of people at the bottom left.

This is the view from the Peace Museum, looking back toward the Memorial. See the enormous line of people?

When we got back to the city that night, after the speeches, we headed over to the Peace Park. People were lined up for blocks and blocks, waiting their turn to see the wreaths placed by world leaders at the Memorial. Waiting for a chance not to see the leaders themselves, but the tangible offerings they left behind in honor of all the innocent people killed. We sat and watched for a long time and I thought to myself, have I ever waited that long for anything?

Our guide that day was from Hiroshima, born and raised. Her parents had migrated from China before she was born, which was over 40 years ago. We tentatively approached the issue of the bomb with her by admitting how pleasantly surprised we were by the city vibe, considering that everything there only existed since approximately the 1950's. She nodded and smiled. We said we didn't know what we had expected, but that the city far surpassed it, that the people were so nice and the feeling was simply "life as usual." She nodded and smiled. If she had anything of import to add, she purposefully kept it from us. But I'd like to think that she simply agreed with us. After all, we had spent the entire day together, talking about Hawaii and the U.S. and the Japanese herds of deer and a variety of shrines and temples. She didn't seem to be one to resist conversation.

But who knows.

**This is an excerpt from an essay titled, "All Apologies" by Eula Biss. It is part of her greater work of essays, Notes from No Man's Land. I highly recommend it. (It's not about nuclear warfare!) :)