The first point in our plan for today was the Peace Memorial Museum. We rented a bike for 500 yen at the hostel and rode to the Peace Memorial Park. We left the bikes somewhere near the museum and went in. One cool thing about Japan is that you can do this kind of stuff knowing that the bike is still going to be there when you get back.
When we got into the museum, the first thing that caught our attention was the Peace Watch, which is a clock located at the entrance with the current time and two screens below. The first screen shows how many days have passed since Hiroshima was bombed in 1945, while the second shows the days that have passed since the last nuclear bomb test. Because of the recent North Korean test, the counter was really low. Seeing the contrast between those two really makes you think about the danger of allowing nuclear weapons nowadays. Below those screens there was a series of gears forming a column. The lowest one was fixed onto the concrete below, making it impossible for it to move. The gears were connected in a way that if one turned once, the next one would only move a bit. The first one was connected to an electric motor that supposedly turned at 100 RPM. The text near the clock said that the speed of the wheels represents the danger there is of nuclear war. Right now you can only see the first three or maybe four out of over ten wheels moving. However, if the speed rises beyond a specific threshold, and the movement reaches the lowest wheel, the clock self-destructs.
A bit further we saw a screen showing a video of the detonation of the atomic bomb and the destruction it left behind, together with a request for an nuke-free world. On the wall there were several panels that showed Hiroshimas history up to the the detonation of the atomic bomb and the reconstruction of the city. I cannot really explain the feeling you get when you walk along that wall and read all those panels while watching the images that came along. At some point I even felt a bit sick. It's not like I didn't know what happened here, but at the museum you get to see a completely different point of view. When you learn about it in school, for example, it just feels like numbers. The atomic bomb had a yield of 15 kilotons, 140000 people died, some people exposed to the radiation only noticed the effects after 10 years, and so on. People are just used to hearing such numbers. You get the numbers of deaths due to traffic accidents almost every week in the news, so if somebody tells you another number, you just accept it and don't really think about it. It's not like people don't care about it, it's just that you can't really immagine what all those numbers actually mean without feeling sick.
Well, when you go through those halls in the museum, you think of what those numbers mean. And you imagine what it would have been like to be there. It's not something nice to feel. But I think it is necessary. In some way, it changes your way of thinking about weapons, specially nuclear weapons.
In the center of the museum you find two models of the city, one that represents how the city was immediately before the bomb and the other one immediately after. It seriously makes you wonder what devastating effect a current nuclear bomb would have, thinking that today the "standard" nuclear bombs have at least 20 times the yield of the bomb over hiroshima, with some going up to thousands of times (hidrogen bombs, if you're interested, I recommend Wikipedia).
Around those model there were four pillars covered with letters written by Hiroshima's mayors to the embassadors of different countries every time those countries conducted a nuclear bomb test. In those letters, the mayors complained about nuclear weapons and asked for their abolition.
In the upper floor you can see a globe showing the amount of nuclear warheads each country currently posesses.
A bit further we found a hall with objects recovered after the detonation of the atomic bomb, such as molten tiles and rocks, or burnt clothes from persons (mostly students) who were working as volunteers nearby and perished in the bombing. There was also a room where the atomic bomb, the radiation and its effects on people were explained at a relatively basic level, in order to allow everyone to get an approximate idea without going into details. Some stories about specific people who were present were written on the walls, such as the one of Sadako Sasaki, a girl that got leukemia due to the radiation she was exposed to and started making origami cranes in her last days hoping that the legend of the thousand origami cranes would become true and she would be saved. It is, as I said, really impressive to walk through those halls and think of all those people that suffered the bombings...
Believe me, if you come to Japan, Hiroshima is a must!
After spending around two hours in the museum, we rode to the Dome, one of the few buildings that was not completely destroyed in the bombings. It's ruins are still kept as a reminder of the bombings. Later on we went to the Shukkei garden, where we stayed for a bit in order to rest. There was a couple doing a professional photo shooting session in front of the lake. [Again, ]I felt a bit like the character of Scarlett Johansson in Lost in Translation, where she is at a temple and sees a couple about to marry passing by. The water was very calm, so you could see their reflection on the water, which looked beatiful. Afterwars, we sat on a rock on the border of the lake, and the turtles in the lake kept coming. I would have loved to feed them (they looked as if they were expecting some food), but unfortunately we didn't have nothing eatable to give them. Nevertheless, it was really cool to sit in front of such a large group of turtles and looking at them as they looked at us.
Finally, we went to that shopping street we had seen yesterday, where I found a Dance Dance Revolution X machine. I danced a few rounds, leaving the machine free after each round to let a japanese guy that was waiting play. I've noticed that DDR is actually not one of the most played games here, with Beatmania and Drummania being the most appealing to the Japanese.
Last but not least, we made "tortilla de patatas" for dinner. I've been having ramen for dinner almost every day, and already missed spanish food... It was delicious, and what's even better, it was cheap!
When we got into the museum, the first thing that caught our attention was the Peace Watch, which is a clock located at the entrance with the current time and two screens below. The first screen shows how many days have passed since Hiroshima was bombed in 1945, while the second shows the days that have passed since the last nuclear bomb test. Because of the recent North Korean test, the counter was really low. Seeing the contrast between those two really makes you think about the danger of allowing nuclear weapons nowadays. Below those screens there was a series of gears forming a column. The lowest one was fixed onto the concrete below, making it impossible for it to move. The gears were connected in a way that if one turned once, the next one would only move a bit. The first one was connected to an electric motor that supposedly turned at 100 RPM. The text near the clock said that the speed of the wheels represents the danger there is of nuclear war. Right now you can only see the first three or maybe four out of over ten wheels moving. However, if the speed rises beyond a specific threshold, and the movement reaches the lowest wheel, the clock self-destructs.
A bit further we saw a screen showing a video of the detonation of the atomic bomb and the destruction it left behind, together with a request for an nuke-free world. On the wall there were several panels that showed Hiroshimas history up to the the detonation of the atomic bomb and the reconstruction of the city. I cannot really explain the feeling you get when you walk along that wall and read all those panels while watching the images that came along. At some point I even felt a bit sick. It's not like I didn't know what happened here, but at the museum you get to see a completely different point of view. When you learn about it in school, for example, it just feels like numbers. The atomic bomb had a yield of 15 kilotons, 140000 people died, some people exposed to the radiation only noticed the effects after 10 years, and so on. People are just used to hearing such numbers. You get the numbers of deaths due to traffic accidents almost every week in the news, so if somebody tells you another number, you just accept it and don't really think about it. It's not like people don't care about it, it's just that you can't really immagine what all those numbers actually mean without feeling sick.
Well, when you go through those halls in the museum, you think of what those numbers mean. And you imagine what it would have been like to be there. It's not something nice to feel. But I think it is necessary. In some way, it changes your way of thinking about weapons, specially nuclear weapons.
In the center of the museum you find two models of the city, one that represents how the city was immediately before the bomb and the other one immediately after. It seriously makes you wonder what devastating effect a current nuclear bomb would have, thinking that today the "standard" nuclear bombs have at least 20 times the yield of the bomb over hiroshima, with some going up to thousands of times (hidrogen bombs, if you're interested, I recommend Wikipedia).
Around those model there were four pillars covered with letters written by Hiroshima's mayors to the embassadors of different countries every time those countries conducted a nuclear bomb test. In those letters, the mayors complained about nuclear weapons and asked for their abolition.
In the upper floor you can see a globe showing the amount of nuclear warheads each country currently posesses.
A bit further we found a hall with objects recovered after the detonation of the atomic bomb, such as molten tiles and rocks, or burnt clothes from persons (mostly students) who were working as volunteers nearby and perished in the bombing. There was also a room where the atomic bomb, the radiation and its effects on people were explained at a relatively basic level, in order to allow everyone to get an approximate idea without going into details. Some stories about specific people who were present were written on the walls, such as the one of Sadako Sasaki, a girl that got leukemia due to the radiation she was exposed to and started making origami cranes in her last days hoping that the legend of the thousand origami cranes would become true and she would be saved. It is, as I said, really impressive to walk through those halls and think of all those people that suffered the bombings...
Believe me, if you come to Japan, Hiroshima is a must!
After spending around two hours in the museum, we rode to the Dome, one of the few buildings that was not completely destroyed in the bombings. It's ruins are still kept as a reminder of the bombings. Later on we went to the Shukkei garden, where we stayed for a bit in order to rest. There was a couple doing a professional photo shooting session in front of the lake. [Again, ]I felt a bit like the character of Scarlett Johansson in Lost in Translation, where she is at a temple and sees a couple about to marry passing by. The water was very calm, so you could see their reflection on the water, which looked beatiful. Afterwars, we sat on a rock on the border of the lake, and the turtles in the lake kept coming. I would have loved to feed them (they looked as if they were expecting some food), but unfortunately we didn't have nothing eatable to give them. Nevertheless, it was really cool to sit in front of such a large group of turtles and looking at them as they looked at us.
Finally, we went to that shopping street we had seen yesterday, where I found a Dance Dance Revolution X machine. I danced a few rounds, leaving the machine free after each round to let a japanese guy that was waiting play. I've noticed that DDR is actually not one of the most played games here, with Beatmania and Drummania being the most appealing to the Japanese.
Last but not least, we made "tortilla de patatas" for dinner. I've been having ramen for dinner almost every day, and already missed spanish food... It was delicious, and what's even better, it was cheap!
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The Peace Clock
Just a normal day in 1945...
High school students doing volunteer work were burned to death in the bombings
Couple doing a photo shooting session at the park. Sorry, my camera sometimes does not focus right. But you get the idea.
The place where we met the turtles
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Buenas Chicos!, SOy Miguel desde Augsburg!
ReplyDeleteTodo en orden por aqui maniana nos vamos a visitar Berlin 5 dias. Italia estuvo genial.
Por lo demas pues muy interesante lo de las bombas atomicas!. Y la respuesta es si, si estoy interesado en la bomba H. Tendre que consultar Wikipedia.
Por cierto la de Nagasaki fue mas destructiva no?......
Y una pregunta de las que me gustan. ?Como comparan a veces la destruccion que provoca un terremoto o maremoto con una detonacion atomica?
Dicen este terremoto equivale a 10 veces Hirosima......O se me ha ido la pinza.
Y ya si te aburres: ?EL otro dia vi un documental sobre exlosiones atomicas en el que parecia ser que en lo que es el epicentro de la explosion, la destruccion no es tan masiva como en los extremos. Esto incluso, hace que los arboles o cosas que esten en el epicentro se mantengan de pie. Como es posible. Aludian a que en ese momento la liberacion de energia se produce de manera simetrica, y que por eso pasa eso.
Y por ultimo me gustaria que comentases, como crees que afectaria a Madrid, tirar una bomba H en el Km 0 de la puerta de sol.
Como te curras los blogs Juanjo.Seguro que en el futuro te contrato para que me disenies una web o un blog de estos pues si que tengo en mente ofertar entrenamientos por internet, junto con algun amigo, y necesitaremos un buen administrador......Ya hablaremos de negocios. Me han dicho que te han aceptado en Munich, yo creo que te va a gustar, aunque el tiempo no da tregua. Solo he visto el sol en esta parte del mundo en postales, pero seguro que te gusta. No dejes de ir al OlimpiaPark. Me encanta ese parque.
Y poco mäs, pasarlo muy bien y un beso de nuestra parte.
Miguel y Janna