A bomb
Saturday, 13 November 2004
We went to Hiroshima a few days ago, it wasnt at all what I expected. The city itself has a really good vibe about it. We went to the World Peace museum. It goes without saying I suppose that dropping a nuclear bomb on a city is devastating and harsh but the peace museum really brought it home.
The first floor was all about the history leading up to the bomb, how bloodthirsty the japanese were and how they dealt with world war two (similar to britain except they conscripted school children to make the fire breaks they set up around the city and imported loads of Koreans to do forced labour- 1 in ten that died from the bomb was Korean.) I hadnt realised that Einstein was instrumental in persuading Rosevelt to develop the Abomb. The Museum had all of the minutes from the meetings where all of the politicians discussed the dropping of the bomb. There was this one letter from one of the scientists involved in the project urging Roosevelt not to drop the bomb unannounced. It seemed like a lot of tax payers money had been spent on the development of the bomb and it needed to be used, they also wanted to limit the power of russia in the post war world and they thought it would end the war, which it did I suppose. There seems to have been a lot of scientific interest in how it would work too, after the bomb landed the americans saw patients and recorded their symptoms without treating them. But, Whoopee for the Americans! They did take 25 women over to the states for plastic surgery a few years later.
The upper two floors were awful because tahy showed the effects of teh bomb on the people who lived in Hiroshima at the time. There were ragged childrens clothes on little wicker manekins. and so many awful stories. I thought it was amazing that after the whole city had been destroyed they started to rebuild again the very next day.
So there you go history lesson from me.
On November 15, 2004, Kev-La said:
That place sounds really very interesting - but extremely saddening. I suppose it must show just how indomitable the human spirit can be though, to begin again right after that. Good lesson, Catherine! Take photos and show them to Americans later ;)
On November 18, 2004, Sue Harris said:
Interested to read this I am good friend of Julian and Barbara