Hiroshima

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What a place. We arrived and booked ourselves into the hotel and found the city to be beautiful. It was relatively new and it was clear the entire place was rebuilt at the same time shortly after the atom bomb. The first night we attended the peace memorial and park and it was an experience that affected us all. The immense sadness that takes over you as you walk through the park cannot be described. I can only compare it with a visit to Auschwitz I made a few years ago. Although in Auschwitz the atrocities that happened there were pure evil, Hiroshima can be justified be it through pearl harbour or the Russians imminent invasion of the country.

What is difficult to fathom though is the number of children who died in the attack. The innocent that were written off as collateral damage. The place has a huge military interest but yet the factories were hidden amongst houses, children were the ones who worked in the factories.

I could write so much here about the reasons, justifications but at the end it doesn't answer the question fundimentally why this had to happen to so many innocent people. Sadness fills the place and the A-bomb dome has an eerie presence to it.

One has to visit the place to understand what I am talking about. My time there was memorable and I am glad I had the chance to pay my respects to the innocent lives that were lost. But it is somewhere I wouldn't like to visit again. Even after seeing so much suffering and death first hand myself, nothing can prepare you for the feeling of this memorial.

It makes clear the fear and consequences of nuclear weapons.