A-bomb Sites

Hiroshima and Nagasaki were the first and last cities destroyed by nuclear bombs. We visited the atomic bomb sites and peace museums at both of Japan's southern cities.

The Nagasaki Peace Museum was particularly well-balanced with a history of Japan's role in the events leading up to August 1945. I learned from their honest account of events from the Chinese-Japanese wars to Japanese expansionism in Southeast Asia to the simultaneous attack against Britain in SE Asia and the US at Pearl Harbor to their exploitation of people in their colonies to their own internal fascism. The exhibit ended with a history of the peace movement and a hope that will countries continue to reduce their nuclear weapons stock.

The Museum in Hiroshima evaded delving into much self-criticism. However, their A-Bomb Dome made my hair stand on end. It's one thing to see destruction in a grainy black-and-white photograph, quite another to see the burnt, bombed-out frame of what was, at the time, a beautiful, new building. The skeleton stands as a reminder of the city's immense loss.

I'll end with a quote I found in from one of the Manhatten Project members:

'I made one great mistake in my life when I signed the letter to President Roosevelt that atomic bombs be used.' ~Albert Einstein