平和公園でヒロシマと平和と考えています
'Thinking about Hiroshima and Peace in the Peace Park'
In fitting tradition with student ethics the world over I wrote this on the fly the night before and day the papers were due. The tone is a little wanky because it was being handed up to an academic of Peace Studies, but thought it might be an interesting read anyway . . . besides the weather outside is perfect and so I should go be in it after a week of arse-slogging uni work which sucked! . . .
Living in Hiroshima has a tremendous impact on one’s impression of the city. It is a very different experience to that of a tourist visiting for a mere few days to see the site of the world’s first use of an atomic bomb against human beings. The name of Hiroshima is synonymous with World War II and the atrocities that humans have been known to inflict upon each other. I remember, as a child, seeing a play produced by Australian students about the story of Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes. I found it deeply moving to see the unjust suffering of another person my own age. I have heard many reports about why the bomb was dropped; why it had to be dropped; how it had many positive outcomes despite the obvious drawbacks. Before my arrival here it seemed amazing to me that I would be coming to live in a city with such a history.
However, upon my arrival it became more important that I simply survive in another country, in a completely new situation with a foreign language. One comes to regard Hiroshima as the city in which you live; where you shop, make friends, study; doing all of the normal things that people do in first world nations the globe over. Hiroshima as the first city ever bombed by an atomic weapon does not really correlate to your experience of what seems just like many other bustling modern cities of moderate size. When one comes to the point of trying to reconcile these two ideas of the same city it can be a strange undertaking and one can end up wondering whether you have lost your ability to empathise or show concern for others. Surely I cannot have lost what I possessed as a child ? Is it simply that this is an event so heinous and incomprehensible; something so surreally horrible that unless you have seen it with your own eyes you can never really hope to grasp its enormity or severity ? Does this response have something to do with living in Hiroshima on a day to day basis ? I wonder how Japanese people feel about it, and I tried to ask them.
A friend who was travelling through Japan spent a day here, as he described it ‘doing the whole Hiroshima thing’. I came to realise that what he meant by this was visiting the Peace Park, Genbaku Dome, Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum and Hiroshima National Peace Memorial Hall. He said that he found it incredibly moving. Naturally everyone responds differently to things but I wonder what influences my experiences of these places and makes them vary from people from similar and different backgrounds to mine.
Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum
I visited the Peace Memorial Museum with a group of Japanese friends. It was an interesting and strange experience. It seemed an odd place for us to visit together; for them to take me to, because there is such a sense of victimization surrounding the dropping of the bomb. Though Japan was one of the major aggressors during World War II this decisive action, that effectively ended the war, was a gruesome incident equal to such condemned incidents as the German firebombing of Guernica in the 1930s. During the First and Second World Wars military targets were no longer restricted to enemy military locations and personnel; civilians were no longer inviolate to attack. Civilians of a country at war, of course, were never entirely safe, but the specific targeting of civilian locations increased at this time as a method demoralizing an enemy. Thus I felt that visiting a site such as this, with those who are potentially the descendents of those who died or suffered through this traumatic event, was akin to visiting a massacre site with Aboriginal people in Australia.
I asked a few of the different people I was with about how the Museum made them feel. One of my friends told me that his grandfather had been in Hiroshima at the time of the bombing and that his mother and sister had died. He said that this experience had obviously affected him greatly, but that he chose never to speak of it, as his way of coping. I asked two of the girls whether they had ever been to the Museum before and how it made them feel then and now. They said they had been once before, visiting on a school trip when they were much younger. At that time many of the students were very upset by what they saw and read, and that visiting now they felt saddened and horrified.
I was struck by the emphasis, in the early sections of the museum, on Hiroshima’s large amount of involvement in Japan’s military history. It showed that Hiroshima had historically been a centre for the deployment of aggressive action, with the Diet and Emperor residing and convening parliament in the city for at times during war. Along with the fact that the city produced munitions and other supplies for the military, like many Japanese cities, it seemed to explain to an extent, why Hiroshima was chosen as an A-bomb target.
I found it very interesting to see the full collection of the letters sent my majors of Hiroshima to countries worldwide in an attempt to have them desist in the testing and manufacture of nuclear weapons. It is wonderful that they continue to work so tirelessly in this effort and saddening to know that their endeavours are ill-rewarded.
I found the section of the museum dedicated to the human experience of those hit by the bomb to be horrible and surreal. It was intriguing yet awful to see the last effects and read of the dying moments of so many young people drawn into war to have their lives so tragically cut short. I cannot really begin to imagine how hard it must have been for a parent to search through wreckage and hospital bays seeking their dead or dying offspring. It seems similarly inconceivable that conversely, young children might search for their parents and perhaps never find them. There was a detailed section on the story of Sadako and other people who though immediately unaffected by the bomb had the terrible tragedy to be indiscriminately struck by the aftereffects of radiation exposure.
I was intrigued to learn more about the ways in which an atomic bomb actually works and grieved that people have spent so much time, money and energy discovering ways to incur so many levels of suffering. The initial blast and heat which destroy and incinerate people and buildings, the secondary fires, the black rain that results from the impact of the bomb with the earth and the release of toxins into the environment, and the long-ranging effects of radiation exposure.
Hiroshima National Peace Memorial Hall
When my International Relations lecturer American 'Parker 先生(sensei)' talks about the use of the bomb and other similar extreme actions of war he often analyses its worthiness in terms of the greatest likely cost to life; whether to have dropped the bomb actually lead to a reduction in the overall loss of life that might have occurred should the war have continued longer than it did as a result of not using the bomb. I while can see the potential necessity for a statesman to consider this when making such decisions it seems to be a grossly inadequate way of viewing this event in history. Maybe one must be pragmatic in a state of war, but as a civilian learning of the terrible suffering and deaths of other relatively innocent civilians merely serving their country as they thought fit, it seems intolerably cruel and inhumane; to treat an individual simply as a dispensable number.
The recently constructed Hiroshima National Peace Memorial Hall addresses this issue of enshrining, grieving for and paying tribute to those who lived and died through the A-bombing of Hiroshima. The Hall provides a dignified space to reflect upon those who died, displaying a panoramic vista of Hiroshima just following the bomb blast that virtually reduced the city to rubble. There is also a large screen that displays photos of those Hibakusha (被爆者 - lit. 'a-bomb person') who are documented as having died at the time or subsequently as a result of effects from the bomb blast.
Similar to my experience of the Peace Memorial Museum, I found the area devoted to documenting the experiences of those who experienced the bomb very intriguing despite their horrific nature. I felt sickened yet amazed by what they recounted. I was also inspired and impressed by the stories of incidents of incredible heroicism and the persistence of humans in the face of enormous odds.
Within this complex there are many computers for accessing a database of the names and details of those people know to have who died in or as a result of the bombing. In this database it is interesting to note the inclusion of at least one white foreigner who was a POW being held in Hiroshima at the time of the bombing. I have currently borrowed from the library, a book called 'Were we the enemy?' which AAdocuments the experience of people connected with the Allies who unfortunately happened to be here and were evidently perceived as reason human casualties of the event.
I also found a copy of Barefoot Gen in the library facilities area there and started to read this, as it is something I have long desired to do. I hope to return to the Hall in future to finish this manga and to learn more about this famous depiction of the human suffering of the Hiroshima A-bomb experience.
Peace Memorial Park
The Peace Park is a place I have ridden and walked through many times already in the one month I have been in Hiroshima, but as yet, I had not taken much time to stop and consider the many memorial statues situated within its grounds. One of the most famous statues is the Children’s Peace Memorial Monument that is surrounded by stands of thousands upon thousands of paper cranes. After visiting the Memorial Hall I walked through the Park, closely inspecting this well-known statue and accompanying plaque, but also looking at some of the more secluded monuments.
The Children’s Peace Memorial Monument is an important focal point for people’s attention. It really encourages everyone to deeply consider the effect of war and such atrocities as the A-bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki on children and to heed the cries for peace by those young innocents who have been so arbitrarily affected.
I also visited the Atomic Bomb Memorial Mound which is mound of raised earth formed from the ashes of those anonymous people who died as a result of the A-bomb but were never identified. It is a sad indictment of the state of war that one can be wholly forgotten because those you loved and by whom you were loved in return, perished with you or could never find your remains to appease the pain of uncertainty in their hearts.
Another important monument is the relatively recently erected statue from 1970, The Monument in memory of the Korean Victims of the A-bomb. The mass transportation of people from other countries that Japan invaded and occupied during the war is an interesting topic that is still a highly sensitive and contentious issue. Acknowledgement of this kind of thing has been scarce in some Japanese historical texts and with the current demonstrations in China about this failure of Japan to acknowldge past wrongs, it is an aspect of the atomic bombing and Hibakusha experience that is worthy of further investigation. It is something that I am reading more about currently in an effort to understand the issues and the different experiences of those involved.
In fitting tradition with student ethics the world over I wrote this on the fly the night before and day the papers were due. The tone is a little wanky because it was being handed up to an academic of Peace Studies, but thought it might be an interesting read anyway . . . besides the weather outside is perfect and so I should go be in it after a week of arse-slogging uni work which sucked! . . .
Living in Hiroshima has a tremendous impact on one’s impression of the city. It is a very different experience to that of a tourist visiting for a mere few days to see the site of the world’s first use of an atomic bomb against human beings. The name of Hiroshima is synonymous with World War II and the atrocities that humans have been known to inflict upon each other. I remember, as a child, seeing a play produced by Australian students about the story of Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes. I found it deeply moving to see the unjust suffering of another person my own age. I have heard many reports about why the bomb was dropped; why it had to be dropped; how it had many positive outcomes despite the obvious drawbacks. Before my arrival here it seemed amazing to me that I would be coming to live in a city with such a history.
However, upon my arrival it became more important that I simply survive in another country, in a completely new situation with a foreign language. One comes to regard Hiroshima as the city in which you live; where you shop, make friends, study; doing all of the normal things that people do in first world nations the globe over. Hiroshima as the first city ever bombed by an atomic weapon does not really correlate to your experience of what seems just like many other bustling modern cities of moderate size. When one comes to the point of trying to reconcile these two ideas of the same city it can be a strange undertaking and one can end up wondering whether you have lost your ability to empathise or show concern for others. Surely I cannot have lost what I possessed as a child ? Is it simply that this is an event so heinous and incomprehensible; something so surreally horrible that unless you have seen it with your own eyes you can never really hope to grasp its enormity or severity ? Does this response have something to do with living in Hiroshima on a day to day basis ? I wonder how Japanese people feel about it, and I tried to ask them.
A friend who was travelling through Japan spent a day here, as he described it ‘doing the whole Hiroshima thing’. I came to realise that what he meant by this was visiting the Peace Park, Genbaku Dome, Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum and Hiroshima National Peace Memorial Hall. He said that he found it incredibly moving. Naturally everyone responds differently to things but I wonder what influences my experiences of these places and makes them vary from people from similar and different backgrounds to mine.
Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum
I visited the Peace Memorial Museum with a group of Japanese friends. It was an interesting and strange experience. It seemed an odd place for us to visit together; for them to take me to, because there is such a sense of victimization surrounding the dropping of the bomb. Though Japan was one of the major aggressors during World War II this decisive action, that effectively ended the war, was a gruesome incident equal to such condemned incidents as the German firebombing of Guernica in the 1930s. During the First and Second World Wars military targets were no longer restricted to enemy military locations and personnel; civilians were no longer inviolate to attack. Civilians of a country at war, of course, were never entirely safe, but the specific targeting of civilian locations increased at this time as a method demoralizing an enemy. Thus I felt that visiting a site such as this, with those who are potentially the descendents of those who died or suffered through this traumatic event, was akin to visiting a massacre site with Aboriginal people in Australia.
I asked a few of the different people I was with about how the Museum made them feel. One of my friends told me that his grandfather had been in Hiroshima at the time of the bombing and that his mother and sister had died. He said that this experience had obviously affected him greatly, but that he chose never to speak of it, as his way of coping. I asked two of the girls whether they had ever been to the Museum before and how it made them feel then and now. They said they had been once before, visiting on a school trip when they were much younger. At that time many of the students were very upset by what they saw and read, and that visiting now they felt saddened and horrified.
I was struck by the emphasis, in the early sections of the museum, on Hiroshima’s large amount of involvement in Japan’s military history. It showed that Hiroshima had historically been a centre for the deployment of aggressive action, with the Diet and Emperor residing and convening parliament in the city for at times during war. Along with the fact that the city produced munitions and other supplies for the military, like many Japanese cities, it seemed to explain to an extent, why Hiroshima was chosen as an A-bomb target.
I found it very interesting to see the full collection of the letters sent my majors of Hiroshima to countries worldwide in an attempt to have them desist in the testing and manufacture of nuclear weapons. It is wonderful that they continue to work so tirelessly in this effort and saddening to know that their endeavours are ill-rewarded.
I found the section of the museum dedicated to the human experience of those hit by the bomb to be horrible and surreal. It was intriguing yet awful to see the last effects and read of the dying moments of so many young people drawn into war to have their lives so tragically cut short. I cannot really begin to imagine how hard it must have been for a parent to search through wreckage and hospital bays seeking their dead or dying offspring. It seems similarly inconceivable that conversely, young children might search for their parents and perhaps never find them. There was a detailed section on the story of Sadako and other people who though immediately unaffected by the bomb had the terrible tragedy to be indiscriminately struck by the aftereffects of radiation exposure.
I was intrigued to learn more about the ways in which an atomic bomb actually works and grieved that people have spent so much time, money and energy discovering ways to incur so many levels of suffering. The initial blast and heat which destroy and incinerate people and buildings, the secondary fires, the black rain that results from the impact of the bomb with the earth and the release of toxins into the environment, and the long-ranging effects of radiation exposure.
Hiroshima National Peace Memorial Hall
When my International Relations lecturer American 'Parker 先生(sensei)' talks about the use of the bomb and other similar extreme actions of war he often analyses its worthiness in terms of the greatest likely cost to life; whether to have dropped the bomb actually lead to a reduction in the overall loss of life that might have occurred should the war have continued longer than it did as a result of not using the bomb. I while can see the potential necessity for a statesman to consider this when making such decisions it seems to be a grossly inadequate way of viewing this event in history. Maybe one must be pragmatic in a state of war, but as a civilian learning of the terrible suffering and deaths of other relatively innocent civilians merely serving their country as they thought fit, it seems intolerably cruel and inhumane; to treat an individual simply as a dispensable number.
The recently constructed Hiroshima National Peace Memorial Hall addresses this issue of enshrining, grieving for and paying tribute to those who lived and died through the A-bombing of Hiroshima. The Hall provides a dignified space to reflect upon those who died, displaying a panoramic vista of Hiroshima just following the bomb blast that virtually reduced the city to rubble. There is also a large screen that displays photos of those Hibakusha (被爆者 - lit. 'a-bomb person') who are documented as having died at the time or subsequently as a result of effects from the bomb blast.
Similar to my experience of the Peace Memorial Museum, I found the area devoted to documenting the experiences of those who experienced the bomb very intriguing despite their horrific nature. I felt sickened yet amazed by what they recounted. I was also inspired and impressed by the stories of incidents of incredible heroicism and the persistence of humans in the face of enormous odds.
Within this complex there are many computers for accessing a database of the names and details of those people know to have who died in or as a result of the bombing. In this database it is interesting to note the inclusion of at least one white foreigner who was a POW being held in Hiroshima at the time of the bombing. I have currently borrowed from the library, a book called 'Were we the enemy?' which AAdocuments the experience of people connected with the Allies who unfortunately happened to be here and were evidently perceived as reason human casualties of the event.
I also found a copy of Barefoot Gen in the library facilities area there and started to read this, as it is something I have long desired to do. I hope to return to the Hall in future to finish this manga and to learn more about this famous depiction of the human suffering of the Hiroshima A-bomb experience.
Peace Memorial Park
The Peace Park is a place I have ridden and walked through many times already in the one month I have been in Hiroshima, but as yet, I had not taken much time to stop and consider the many memorial statues situated within its grounds. One of the most famous statues is the Children’s Peace Memorial Monument that is surrounded by stands of thousands upon thousands of paper cranes. After visiting the Memorial Hall I walked through the Park, closely inspecting this well-known statue and accompanying plaque, but also looking at some of the more secluded monuments.
The Children’s Peace Memorial Monument is an important focal point for people’s attention. It really encourages everyone to deeply consider the effect of war and such atrocities as the A-bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki on children and to heed the cries for peace by those young innocents who have been so arbitrarily affected.
I also visited the Atomic Bomb Memorial Mound which is mound of raised earth formed from the ashes of those anonymous people who died as a result of the A-bomb but were never identified. It is a sad indictment of the state of war that one can be wholly forgotten because those you loved and by whom you were loved in return, perished with you or could never find your remains to appease the pain of uncertainty in their hearts.
Another important monument is the relatively recently erected statue from 1970, The Monument in memory of the Korean Victims of the A-bomb. The mass transportation of people from other countries that Japan invaded and occupied during the war is an interesting topic that is still a highly sensitive and contentious issue. Acknowledgement of this kind of thing has been scarce in some Japanese historical texts and with the current demonstrations in China about this failure of Japan to acknowldge past wrongs, it is an aspect of the atomic bombing and Hibakusha experience that is worthy of further investigation. It is something that I am reading more about currently in an effort to understand the issues and the different experiences of those involved.
posted by Eleanora Martinez at 3:20 AM
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