Hiroshima

We weren’t planning to visit Hiroshima but at the last minute we decided to do so.  We saw the bomb dome, the memorial gardens and pond, the peace flame (to burn until all nuclear weapons are destroyed worldwide), and the arch where the victim’s names are buried.  The museum was gruesome and powerful. [During a visit to Los Alamos, New Mexico (also an unplanned side trip while in Sante Fe/Taos) we saw a ‘scientific’ take on the atomic bombing. While we learned a lot at Los Alamos, it was completely void of feeling, of responsibility. Not surprising, but unfortunate.]

The part that most affected me was the story of the little girl who died from leukemia. She was two years old when the bomb hit Hiroshima.  She grew up, seemingly healthy, but then got sick at age 11.  She believed that if she folded 1,000 paper cranes she would survive. She tried to fold these in the hospital but died before she could finish. Her classmates folded the rest.  Someone wrote a book about it and then children around the world (including myself, including you?) read the book, folded more cranes, and sent them to Japan.  Kids still do this from all over the world.  Now they take the cranes and recycle many of them, turning them into postcards to go back out into the world.

Bomb dome, flame, arch with names

Children's Memorial