The A-Bomb Museum

Hiroshima was a pleasant surprise after our whirlwind through other parts of Japan.  It’s quite touristy here and very well designed for foreigners and also very pretty.  We caught a tram to the Museum and Peace Park, which was something a little bit different, after flying around on the  bullet trains.

I have to share with you Georgie’s comment about the Shinkansen trains – she is such a world traveller!!  She said – “They aren’t that fast!  I don’t think it’s any different to the Eurostar!”  Pretty good comment for a 9 year old – she still has no idea how lucky she is!

Anyway, as you would imagine the A-bomb Dome was very thought provoking.  The bomb was detonated about 600 metres above Hiroshima and almost directly above the Dome – they believe that is why it was not completely flattened like most other buildings close to the hypercentre.

As Australians, we know plenty about the Japanese and the War but typically, I know I had never stopped to think about the political situation or what was going on with the Japanese public back home.  I think that was the biggest thing Paul and I got from the museum. 

The government had implemented a plan that sounds eerily similar to some of the communist policies we’ve read about in China and Cambodia.

One of the things that this type of policy lead to was the use of school children in work gangs.  Mainly kids in what is now termed “Junior High”, ie about 11 to 15, were sent out in their class groups to work in the demolition areas.  These were areas that had been demolished to reduce the chance of fire spreading from air raids.  As a result, on the day the bomb was dropped, most of these kids were working outdoors and were killed.

We were also pleasantly surprised to see that in the displays, Japan took responsibility for its actions in the war and that nothing was held back – this was a big change from the museum in Vietnam which was very one-sided.

Overall, the museum was extremely good and I think we all got a lot out of it.  Hiroshima is a big anti-nuclear weapons advocate and calls for the ban of all nuclear weapons.  Lets hope someone out there is listening.