I was first taught about Hiroshima and the events leading up to the first use of a nuclear weapon when I was in elementary school, but never understood it until later in school (or so I thought). I thought that I had a complete grasp on everything about World War II and the reasons behind every action after taking multiple US history courses. But nothing could have prepared me for what I learned when we visited Hiroshima. It’s one thing to read about an event in a history textbook and a whole other thing to visit actual place for yourself. If someone was to visit Hiroshima with no background knowledge about the tragedy that occurred there, they would likely never believe that a nuclear bomb was dropped there. The city itself is large, with a population of around 1.2 million inhabitants, and is beautiful and modern. Streetcars run in the center of the roads with shops lining the streets. People stay out late exploring what the city has to offer and the city has a very peaceful air to it. It is almost hard to believe that Hiroshima was destroyed 74 years ago.
I was anxious to visit the museum. Before entering the building, I had this feeling of secondhand guilt as an American visiting a museum dedicated to the sheer destruction imposed on Japan by the United States. I was nervous to hear side conversations about the inhumane nature of the bomb and discussions over why the United States thought that it would be a good idea to drop it – I was scared of the blame and was worried that people would automatically dislike me if they knew where I was from. The Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum never once used an accusatory word against the United States or any Allied power that would suggest disdain for the countries and their actions during wartime. It simply put forward their side of the bombing and used the exhibits as an example as to why nuclear weapons should be abolished worldwide.
As I said before, I thought I knew everything there was to know about the war before visiting the museum. This was not at all the case. I was tearing up by the time we entered the first room of the museum. Images on the wall depicted Hiroshima before the use of the A-bomb and how lively the city was. There were pictures of swim meets and children going to school and action on the roads, then there was a picture of a city completely burned to the ground. The images of flat ground and total destruction did not resemble the life that I had seen a few moments before, and I mentally prepared myself for the rest of the museum and the inevitable sadness I would feel.
Walking through the halls of the museum, seeing the artifacts, and reading the explanations on the plaques filled me with a sadness and empathy for a city that I had been in for only a few hours. Seeing children’s clothes burnt and ruined, images of the injuries suffered by the victims, and artwork depicting the hell that people experienced for days on end made my heart incredibly heavy. I wanted to stay in the building for hours just to learn about how people reacted and what they did to try and save themselves and their loved ones. As I passed through the exhibit, I learned details about August 6th, 1945 that I never would have known had I not visited the museum. I never knew that over 6,000 of the victims were school children. I never knew the reason why the United States chose to drop the first bomb on Hiroshima. I never knew what the injuries resulting from a nuclear bomb looked like, and still cannot imagine what the citizens of Hiroshima felt that day. I moved through the museum slowly, absorbing everything I could in the amount of time that we had. After exiting the portion of the museum dedicated to the bomb itself and the days after the event, there was another part of the museum dedicated to an explanation for the use of the bomb and a description of the war efforts leading up to the A-bomb. It detailed information about the arms race to make the first nuclear bomb, about nuclear testing, the state of Japan before the bomb was dropped, and the science behind the atomic bomb. Finally, there was a word about the abolition of nuclear weapons worldwide, as the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum offers itself up as an example as to why it should be abolished forever.
After exiting the museum, we walked around the Peace Park for some time and visited the hypocenter of the bomb and the A-dome. I looked around the city and images of the city in flames and people in a state of absolute panic filled my mind. I imagined what the river looked like that day, with people desperately jumping into the water to try and relieve themselves from the heat and corpses floating downstream. I never want to imagine that ever again and I can never imagine what it was like to actually see it happen.
The next day, we returned to the museum to hear a storyteller describe Hiroshima. She is the daughter of a survivor of the bomb, but she was born 5 years after the bombing. She learned English just so that no details would be lost in translation. I was deeply touched by everything she said and how she described the events, but one thing she said stuck with me. Her mother had said to her that she could tell her the story hundreds of times, but she would never truly understand the tragedy. I could not agree more with this statement. It’s one thing to read about something in a textbook, it’s another thing to visit the place where tragedy struck, and it’s a whole different thing to experience the event yourself. After visiting Hiroshima, I have gained so much knowledge about what happened on August 6th, 1945 and have gained so many different outlooks on history because I now know that there are more than 2 sides to every story.
Paper cranes are representative of hope – this whole image is made of paper cranes.
These are stings of paper cranes that rest on the children’s memorial at the Peace Park.
The river that runs through Hiroshima and the A-dome in the background.
A monument in the exact spot where the nuclear bomb struck.