Hiroshima - 75 Years

Visited Hiroshima about 5 years ago, highly recommended if anyone gets chance.

There's a real calmness and a peaceful atmosphere in the city, not like anywhere else I've ever been. The museum is horrifying, I imagine it's on a par with a visit to Auschwitz. It's full of personal possessions, alongside the story of the day and the aftermath as told by survivors. There's walls and doorways that survived containing the outlines of poor souls who were simply vapourised on the spot. Although maybe they were the lucky ones..

We came away with totally mixed emotions, the positivity (if that's the right word) being that the Japanese accepted that their own cruelty had made the dropping of the bomb necessary, and vowed to learn the lesson so history wouldn't repeat itself - at least not by their hands.

I totally understand the stories from further up the thread from people's family member in the war - my granddad on my mum's side was the same, but the Japanese people today are probably the friendliest and most well mannered* I've come across anywhere. It seems for once that lessons from history were actually learned


*They're also a bit mad and drink like there's no tomorrow!

 

There was a veteran who used to sit near the bar in a wheelchair at the Ridgewood pub in
Edenthorpe near Doncaster. He had played in the same Doncaster team as the landlords
Dad. The landlord at the times was an ex- Barnsley, Doncaster player Barry Swallow.

Remember my late Dad telling me that the lad had ended up disabled as a Japanese POW. When
he declared that pre-war he had been a professional footballer, one of the guards duly drew a knife
and completely cut through the guiders at the back of his knees. All treatment was denied and he
never walked again.

 

I went in 2006 and your description/ emotions of it are pretty much the same as what I experienced.