The first thing we did in Hiroshima is go to the Peace Memorial Museum. The museum centers around the history of Hiroshima, why the U.S. developed an atomic bomb, why Hiroshima was chosen out of several cities in Japan, and some science. It was clearly very anti nuclear weapons. Later on in the museum there were graphic images and photographs of people's injuries.
We went to a hall in the basement of this museum to hear an atomic bomb survivor speak.
Some things she mentioned include
- she was 14 years old at the time of the bombing and she's 82 now
- she was 2.5 km away from the hypocenter, inside of a building that collapsed as a result of the bomb
- people's skin melted off (in pictures, it's not rags or clothing that's hanging off of people and their arms, it's their skin)
- people were burned and crying out for water
- water or the lack of water killed people, either because they didn't get any or because they got some and it was a shock to their systems
- there was no medicine
- people didn't know anything about radiation, including what it did and how it enters the body
- the bomb was dropped in August and she first saw a doctor in October, during which 7 pieces of glass were removed from her wound
- maggots were in her arm
- survivors who are still alive today continue to suffer from the radiation
- some people didn't get any injuries but died a few years later from radiation
- some people died immediately, while others suffered and died days, months, or years later
- victims and survivors got no help or information from the Japanese government
- it was 12 years after the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima that the government started doing things for the survivors
- she got stomach cancer in 1999
- she started speaking about the bombing in public about 13 years ago, first by talking to her grandkid's class
- survivors were discriminated against by other Japanese people
- she's completely against nuclear power
This stands out to me just because it is acknowledged
drawings and image descriptions by survivors
an example of what Hiroshima does in protest against nuclear weapons
an example of two recent letters, one to Kim Jong-Un of North Korea and the other to Barack Obama of the U.S.
the most recent letter, to Barack Obama, which doesn't have a plaque yet
this hasn't been updated yet either. There is actually a total of 605
before the bomb
after the bomb
it was crowded in some areas of the museum
This caught my attention at first but it just confuses me. I guess it's about how negative views of Japan are reflected by textbooks in other Asian countries? Because of Japan's imperial past. I find this strange and ironic, since it is actually Japan that is often accused of trying to erase history, specifically horrible things committed by imperial Japan. Japan is known for having biased views and inaccurate accounts of history in their textbooks...
again, I think it's notable that it's not only recognized that many Korean people died, but also that they were forced to come to Japan
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