Hiroshima And Osaka

Wednesday morning started with somber visits to the Atomic Dome and Peace Museum, two iconic sites in Hiroshima, the world's most tragic city. The Atomic Dome is a memorial to the 300,000 who died due to the initial effects of the blast, or the later effects of radiation. The dome itself is the remains of a concrete cultural and business center built in 1915. After the war, city residents fought to preserve the ruins, which became a symbol for nuclear bomb destruction. Our guide Kyoko had taught us how to fold paper into Oragani cranes, symbols of peace and longevity. We left these small tokens of respect at the monument to the children who perished in the catastrophe. Just before that we saw small school children, so my heart quickened when I left the crane at the monument. The Peace Museum, which shows the devastation to ordinary Hiroshima victims is meaningful, and almost unbelievable - photos, charred clothes, and painful survivor testimonies proclaim the horror and reality of the atomic bombing of 1945. After leaving the Peace Memorial Museum, we had lunch at the train station. Then we boarded a bullet train and arrived in Osaka in the mid-afternoon. - Dan

It's impossible to visit the memorials in Hiroshima without being deeply touched by the particular horrors endured by the victims of the first use of nuclear weapons. As with visits to Holocaust memorials, or other sites memorializing the dead as a result of human cruelty toward other innocent humans, one cannot help but wonder if we are doomed by our own innate capacity for killing. During my first visit to Hiroshima with a group of fellow tourists 25 years ago, I got into a heated exchange with one of our group who defended the use of the bomb. To me this is indefensible. Nuclear weapons are an obscenity that must be abolished. Look at the faces of the burnt and suffering children and tell me that the use of the bomb was justified. It was not. There is no justification for the mass killing of innocent human beings. At the Hiroshima memorial Dan and I signed a petition for a woman calling for the complete abolition of nuclear weapons. Inside the museum I was ashamed, but not surprised to learn that the United States has not signed on to the international effort to ban nuclear weapons. When will we ever learn? We arrived in Osaka to find a bustling, modern city known as a prime commercial hub in Japan. There is not much of old Osaka remaining, the shrines, temples, and quaint neighborhoods having been carpet-bombed into oblivion by the allies during WWII. However, the city rose from the ashes and sparkles at night. Perhaps there is hope for mankind after all, if we heed the message of Hiroshima. - Jim