This past weekend I went to Hiroshima, Japan. Here, we looked at the Hiroshima peace memorial museum and park. The entrance of the museum opened with a mural of the city after the nuclear bomb hit. There were broken trees, crippling houses, and ash and soot covering everything. The next mural shows Hiroshima in its current state — clean and repopulated. The next section was a video of the geography of Hiroshima, and where the bomb hit. It showed the different layers of damage based on proximity to the hypo center and showed some statistics of the amount of damage. The museum then went into sections on the science behind nuclear weapons, the damage and lives lost in Hiroshima, and the diplomatic negotiations before and after the bombing. One of the most eye opening sections of the museum was the part that displays artifacts that experienced the nuclear blow. There was a lunchbox that was rusty and looked as if it would break at any moment, and clothes that were torn with blood still on them. The most heartbreaking piece was a tricycle that was brittle and rusty. Another part of the museum had people who experienced the nuclear bomb draw a picture and write a blurb about what they experienced that day. One of the pictures was full of blood and people floating down a stream. Those who suffered burns where in excruciating pain and threw themselves in the river to try and relieve some of the pain. They then died in the river, which caused the scene of people floating down the river. At the end of the museum, there was a peace watch clock, which gave the number of days since the bombing, and since the last nuclear bombing test. This was important because it showed that there was no blame or hatred associated in this tragedy, but rather a promotion of peace so that another nuclear bomb will not be dropped and no one else will have to suffer like the citizens of Hiroshima suffered.
