Today, our group was fortunate enough to meet with a
Hiroshima bombing survivor and visit the Hiroshima Peace Memorial. Although the
subject at hand was one that cost thousands of lives and obliterated an entire
city, the message of the day was not of bitterness or anger but of peace and
friendship. I felt this especially during our meeting with the survivor. The
survivor shared a little bit about how she survived the attack and the
aftermath of the bombing in her life. However, in most of her presentation, she
discussed the fact that many countries still have a large amount of nuclear
bombs despite the millions of dollars they cost and the damage they ensue. She
emphasized that to promote peace throughout the globe nuclear weapons must be
dismantled. Their power to completely destroy the world in wake of another
world war should be enough to drastically decrease or completely get rid of the
significant amount of nuclear bombs in the world.
After meeting with the survivor, we all walked over to the
Hiroshima Peace memorial to visit the Peace Museum, Peace Memorial, and the
A-bomb dome that the bomb directly landed on. At the museum, we learned about
some Japanese World War Two history and the Hiroshima bombing.
Before the events of World War Two, Japanese aggression started in the 1930s when Japan invaded Manchuria and parts of China. The nation, which always lacked its own raw materials, desired to acquire new territories that provided these resources and spread its culture, which Japan thought superior to all other, across Asia. Due to the Japanese invasion of Manchuria and incidents, such as the horrific Rape of Nanking, the United States placed a trade embargo on Japan. The embargo put immense pressure on Japan’s military and natural resource supply. Therefore, the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941 hoping to force the U.S. to resume normal trade relations with them. Instead, the United States declared war on Japan leading to a four-year long grueling fight in the Pacific front.
The Japanese had some initial victories mostly attributed to their extreme loyalty to their nation, discipline, self-sacrifice, and the gripping hegemony of their military state. However, the American victory in Midway in 1942 signaled a turn in the tide of Japanese victory. After years of horrific bombing and the American military’s “island hopping” strategy, the Japanese emperor surrendered September 2, 1945 after the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
The decisions to drop atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were made by President Harry Truman to force Japan into quick surrender and were largely supported by the American public at the time. A home invasion of Japan would have cost many American, Japanese, and Soviet lives especially in a country where legendary kamikaze fighters felt honored to pay the ultimate price for their country and people strapped with bombs would roll under military tanks to hinder the Allies’ war efforts. Such loyalty and sacrifice could have prolonged the war in the Pacific for years.
Nevertheless, the dropping of “Little Boy” on the militarily strategic city of Hiroshima and “Fat Man” on Nagasaki cost thousands of innocent lives and almost obliterated the two cities. The bomb dropped on Hiroshima killed 70,000 people instantly and many more died of radiation poisoning which infected the water supply of the city.
Hiroshima after the bombing featuring the A-bomb dome
http://www.wsj.com/articles/hiroshima-70-years-after-the-atomic-bomb-1438725242
Enola Gay, the plane that dropped "Little Boy" on Hiroshima
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enola_Gay
The destruction and loss of life in Nagasaki, though more contained, still led to 40,000 deaths and ultimately, Japanese surrender. A few Japanese military leaders did not want to surrender after the atomic attacks. However, the emperor Hirohito, the revered spiritual and political puppet figurehead of Japan, made an unprecedented move by stepping in and demanding the Japanese to “endure the unendurable” – laying down their weapons and admitting defeat.
Emperor Hirohito
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hirohito
Along with the history, the museum also had displayed many
artifacts that survived the blast and had stories of some victims and survivors
of the bombing. I found the tattered uniforms and lunchboxes of a few school
children that had died in the blast extremely heart breaking. However, the
story of a victim I found the most saddening was that of a young girl named
Sadako. Sadako survived the blast and for ten years was perfectly healthy.
Sadly, Sadako was diagnosed with leukemia after those ten years but remained
hopeful of her survival. In fact, she made thousands of little paper cranes,
which, according to Japanese myth, should make one of your wishes come true.
Sadako’s wish was to survive leukemia, and despite her fulfillment of the
Japanese myth, her wish did not come true. To commemorate Sadako, paper cranes
have become a symbol of peace and are adorned around some of the memorials in
the Peace Park. In fact, when President Obama visited the Hiroshima memorial in
August 2016, he made two paper cranes to not only honor Sadako and all the
victims of the Hiroshima bombing but also to signify peace and friendship
between the United States and Japan.
President Barack Obama's paper crane and and note
This message of peace and unity seemed to imbue the entire
day. Even the ruined A-bomb dome, which serves as a constant remainder of the
wreckage of the bomb, was surrounded by small memorials that honored the
victims of the Hiroshima bombing. Although Hiroshima will be forever stained by
the horrors of the atomic bombing, the city has blossomed and now provides a
beautiful memorial for reflection on the past and hope for peaceful progress in
the future.
A-bomb dome now
One memorial in the Peace Park surrounded by
paper cranes made by Japanese school children
http://afe.easia.columbia.edu/special/japan_1900_power.htm
Engdahl, Sylvia. The Atomic Bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Detroit, MI: Greenhaven/Gale Cengage Learning, 2011. Print.
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