Japan Vacation: Hiroshima

     My last stop in my vacation in Japan was the city of Hiroshima. As all of us know, the city was bombed by the U.S. on August 6, 1945 as World War II was coming to a close. The main opinion I have about the event is that its sad that things were bad enough for an atomic bomb to be developed and then used on a country. However, I do find truth in two of the reasons the museum I am about to discuss mentions: 1. The U.S. wanted to end the war quickly before Russia entered, and establish themselves as the biggest world power. 2. The U.S. wanted to justify the billions of dollars it had spent developing the atomic bomb. I wasn't sure what the reaction would be by the Japanese in Hiroshima when they saw that I, an American, was visiting their city. I was happy to find that their only concern was peace. Instead of holding a grudge and hate because of the past, their focus, and the whole focus of the city itself, is to prevent such an event from taking place in the future. The abolition of nuclear weapons is the solution that the city is striving for. There are many anti-nuclear movements happening due the government and all the citizens of Hiroshima.

     The only place I went to in the city was the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park. The Park houses many monuments dedicated to the memory of lives lost during the atomic bombing, and is most famous for the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum. It was in this Museum that I spent about 3 hours. It was definitely an intense experience throughout. In the states we discuss the bombing of the city in history classes and the like, but naturally we aren't exposed to the real damage that it did to the city and its people. That is the whole purpose of the museum, to stress how devastating the atomic bomb really was to the city and the people who were living in the city. I took a lot of video and pictures of the museum and the park itself. Unlike my other videos, there is no music in these (to allow more focus on what the videos are showing). Below I have videos for viewing.