By Caitlin
A building at the center of the where the bomb hit; one of the only remaining buildings. As we made our way through Japan, and Japanese people asked us about where we were visiting next, they seemed to expect us to say Hiroshima. As if we were morally responsible, as Americans, to witness it (although that may have just been our misunderstood perception). While not usually on the typical tourist itinerary, we were curious to witness the post-war city, that was reputedly thriving and beautiful.
And it was both of those things. Next to a bay with dozens of small islands a short boat ride away and rolling hills forming the inland boundary of the city, You might never know that just 70 years ago, the city was devastated by the 1st nuclear weapon to ever be deployed in a war. It is now a modern Japanese city that was rebuilt from ashes and rubble. A beautiful monument to the catastrophe sits in the middle of the city, just near where the bomb went off.
 However, I'm primarily writing this to convey that visiting the Hiroshima Peace Museum was the most devastating musuem and one of the most profound experiences I've ever had. Consisting of victims stories and belongings and survivors' accounts of the day and months that followed were truly horrific. As something we've all learned about as a grave and important decision undertaken by the Allies to hasten the end of WWII, it was still utterly different to see the human side of it. While the justifications for dropping the atomic bomb are not argued in this post or even within the museum, which focuses on nuclear disarmament and securing world peace, it is impossible to not question the event for what it was: one of the darkest events in the history of humanity. It was particularly heavy-hitting to us, after having spent 2 weeks in Japan and being steeped in the kindness and generosity of the Japanese people we met. I did not get the sense that the Japanese are vengeful about the events in Hiroshima or Nagasaki at all and found their resilience and dedication to peace remarkable. And without making this too political, I think we could do more as a society to remember the deaths and experience of those 135,000 people who lost their lives to end the largest war of the 20th century. |  Images of burnt children  Children's clothing from the day the bomb was dropped  Really horrific mannequins showing the melted skin of victims |
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