Remembering Hiroshima

It was 80 years ago today that a United States B-29 bomber named the "Enola Gay" dropped the first atomic bomb in warfare on Hiroshima, Japan.

The Enola Gay
Credit: Time Magazine

The hope was that this weapon would lead to end World War II and prevent what was estimated to be over 1 million casualties that might result from the invasion of the Japanese mainland by United States forces.

Japan did not immediately surrender after Hiroshima. It took a second atomic weapon being dropped on Nagasaki several days later for Japan to understand it was out of options in the war.

Japan announced that it was surrendering unconditionally on August 15, 1945. Formal surrender would come on September 2.

I had the opportunity to visit Hiroshima seven years ago.

It is a bustling and beautiful city of over 1 million people today.

Traveling the city I could not help thinking that every tree, every blade of glass and almost every building did not exist 73 years before

Hiroshima after the Atomic Bomb
Credit: Shigeo Hayashi

This is what the area around what has become known as Peace Memorial Park in Hiroshima looks like today.

A-Bomb Dome
The building closest to the hypocenter of the atomic bomb

I was interested to hear what our Japanese guide (who was in her late 60's) would say about the reasons behind the decision for the Americans to use the atomic bomb. She was surprisingly candid in stating that the Americans used it to save lives. She understood that an invasion of Japan would have resulted in many more deaths. 

She openly admitted that her father told her that the Japanese had made a mistake in going to war with the United States. The Japanese people had been brainwashed by their Emperor and the government into believing they could win. It was an interesting admission. Of course, she was also speaking to a group that was largely made up of Americans.

There were many moving exhibits that were on display in the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum.

This is a tricycle of a 3 year old boy named Shin who died 1,500 meters from the hypocenter of the atomic blast.

Credit: https://www.reddit.com/r/ArtefactPorn/comments/13zcqtz/tricycle_of_3_year_old_boy_named_shin_who_died/

Right after the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima it was predicted that nothing would grow or flourish in the city for 75 years.

However, this image that was in the museum had the greatest effect on me.

Exhibit in the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum

It shows a flowering plant flowering amidst the rubble in the autumn of 1945 just a couple of months after the blast.

That image surely signaled the power of renewal...and hope for the future.

The inscription on the photo reads...

That autumn

In Hiroshima where it was said "For seventy-five years nothing will grow

New buds sprouted

In the green that came back to life

Among the charred ruins

People recovered 

Their living hopes and courage

This is a beautiful Japanese garden that I walked through while I was in Hiroshima.

The buds that pushed through all of the ruins and rubble really became something spectacular.

We can only hope and pray that we never see a Hiroshima or Nagasaki again.

However, seeing the renewal that came out of the destruction and devastation that we saw there should give us hope in mankind in even the darkest of days.

The unanswered question is why mankind seems incapable of avoiding those dark days?