Hiroshima

Today was a very moving day; a day that made vivid the horror of war and of nuclear bombs in particular.  We went by streetcar to the Peace Memorial Park which is located at ground zero.  We began by observing the dome, the remains of a building that was very nearly directly beneath the detonation of the A bomb.  The starkness of the remains sends a shiver down one's spine.  In contrast to the desperate sadness one feels when walking through the WWII cemeteries in Europe, walking at the hypocenter of the blast brings emotions of dread and horror.  It is a creepy sensation walking in the sunshine and imagining a sudden flash of brilliance and heat and immediate devastation for as far as you can see.  You cannot walk around the A-bomb dome without taking as much time as necessary to try to imagine what happened here and to try and come to some kind of terms with how it could possibly have occurred.  And in the end, you walk on, recognizing that the whole nightmare is really quite inconceivable.  
We wandered through the park passing numerous memorials and then spent a few hours in the museum.  The exhibits are absorbing.  The bomb was detonated at a height of 600 meters in order to yield maximum destruction.  There are exhibits explaining how the bomb works, including the physics of nuclear fission.  A section of the museum was devoted to exhibiting the letters that prompted the development of the bomb, the reasons for choosing Japan as the ultimate target and the rationale behind selecting Hiroshima as the primary target.  Other sections of the museum were devoted to showing the effects of the detonation, which included some very graphic images of victims.  Further exhibits provided the necessary balance by explaining how Japan's imperialistic and war-mongering cruelty, and stubborn clutching to the idea of empire provoked the attack.  The remarkable thing about this excellent museum, however, was the pervasive plea that was built upon with every successive exhibit, for world peace and complete global nuclear disarmament.  Overall, the museum provides an extremely balanced account of the war and the events leading up to 8:15am August 6, 1945 as well as an account of the human impact of the bomb.  The photos and the displays are graphic and compelling.  
The current population  of Hiroshima is 1.1 million and the city seems to move slower than the frenetic pace of Tokyo.  Today Cia experienced a traditional Japanese toilet and much prefers the western deluxe version.  She has decided that she is too old for low level squats.   We spent the bulk of our day in the Peace Park and then walked past Hiroshima  Castle.  While making our way to the Shukkeien Gardens we noticed a large group of people, mostly young, loitering around a building.  We wondered whether it was a ticket outlet for a concert, or whether some politician or other celebrity was expected to emerge from  the building because we also saw someone with a TV type video camera.  We eventually gathered enough nerve to approach a young fellow of about 16 years of age (since we had been told that the best chances of finding someone who spoke English was among the youth) and ask him what everyone was waiting for.  He tried deciphering our English phrase and eventually told us that no one was waiting for anything, that this was a high school.  Suitably mortified, we moved on to the Shukkeien Gardens where the cherry trees were in bloom.  Magnificent.  The rest of the garden was in the early throes of spring growth with buds just barely emerging.  It would be a glorious place in the summer and autumn. We wandered through the garden for about an hour before it was time to return to the ship and leave for Busan, South Korea.

Cruise tip:  Hiroshima's public transit is excellent and if you are armed with a good map you will have no problem making your way around.  Do not expect to meet a lot of English speakers, however.