Hiroshima Peace Park

“Yesterday, Dec. 7, 1941 - a date which will live in infamy - the United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan.” – President Franklin D. Roosevelt addressing the United States Congress

And thus the United States entered into World War II after pretending that seas would protect them from a war raging in distant lands.  The war had come to them and they needed to take action. It seemed fitting that today I follow up with a post that was the "beginning of the end" of this war on the Pacific front, the bombing of Hiroshima.

A few weeks ago, T. and I trained to Hiroshima to check out what the city is best known for in modern times, the first atomic bomb used in war. Today, the city has taken this horrific event and turned it into an A-Bomb Building monument, Peace Park and Museum.

The A-Bomb building is a shell of its former self and survived because it was directly under the bomb when it exploded on 6 August 1945.  Everything else in the surrounding area was flattened by the blast outward and the pull inward. All photos of the city after the bomb show an entirely demolished Hiroshima.

The park is at the epicenter of the bomb and most Japanese felt there were too many deaths in this area to rebuild.  Today it’s a beautiful green space with different statues and memorials for the people who died during the explosion. The un-biased, multi-lingual museum is located within the park grounds and its mission is to rid the world of nuclear warfare.  

While viewing the museum, I was consumed by the fact that my country made the decision to cause this pain and destruction. I realize there are numerous decision points that I cannot begin to understand such as the Americans were running out of money for the war effort, the Japanese were fierce combatants and not likely to surrender their country, the atomic bomb developers needed to validate the expenditure, the war could’ve continued for years with several thousand more American deaths, and so on. However after seeing the effects, I just feel sad for the loss of life and a city in ruins.

This feeling reminded me of a discussion with a young German couple while vacationing in Portugal. We were discussing Germany’s strong performance in the 2006 EuroCup (third place). They said that they were happy about the performance but that came second to the sense of pride they felt from being openly proud of their German heritage for the first time. We stared at them in disbelief and confusion. We couldn’t fathom why they would not be proud of their country and for doing so well in the games.

Why not? It was a foreign concept to them. They had been taught from an early age to be humble and remorseful regarding all the pain and terror they caused during both World Wars. Though they had no direct part in it and years had passed, there was still that sense of guilt. Being German was not something to be proud of until the EuroCup.  

This feeling of remorse, sadness and guilt was my experience at the park and museum. I read the accounts (all provided in English) along with the other tourists. I was holding my breath and waiting for a Japanese person to look at me with hatred for causing this pain. And to be honest, I couldn’t blame them. Families were lost or broken, people cared for others with a disease they did not know how to treat and they had to begin rebuilding a city that was entirely demolished. My response could only be that “I’m sorry.”