Hiroshima Brings a Sobering View of the Tragedy of War
Day 25, 2024 Majestic Japan
Thursday, Sept. 26, 2024; Hiroshima, Japan
In early 2023, as I considered booking this Westerdam cruise, I also considered a voyage to Japan on Holland America’s Noordam. Each cruise had its advantages over the other, but the deciding factor was the Westerdam’s itinerary, and more specifically its calls into Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
I was born 10 years after America dropped atomic bombs on these cities. My father was a child during World War II, so I didn’t have any personal connection to the war or its end. But when I was in high school, my mother recommended I read Hiroshima, by John Hersey, and I’ve never forgotten its details about the immediate impact of the bomb.
Today’s visit to ground zero, or the hypocenter as they call it here, was sobering. We started by walking around the remains of the Atomic Bomb Dome, stone and steel remains of the Hiroshima Prefectural Industrial Promotion Hall. Only the fact that the atomic bomb exploded about 2,000 feet above the ground spared part of the building, which remains standing today. More than two-thirds of Hiroshima’s buildings were destroyed by the blast. Eighty thousand people died instantly, and more than 100,000 more from the effects over the next few months.
We will never know whether the bomb saved lives in the long run by ending the war in the Pacific earlier than otherwise. I do remember when, as editor of the newspaper in President Harry Truman’s hometown of Independence, Mo., I realized what a difficult decision it must have been for him. Perhaps all we can do now is learn from the experience.
Today was sunny with few clouds in the sky. Crowds of tourists and, most notably, school children moved slowly along the sidewalks and walkways. It’s easy to identify each group of children by their school baseball caps – some yellow, others red. They carried workbooks and made notes at different parts of their journey.
We crossed a pedestrian bridge to Peace Memorial Park, with its several monuments and memorials. Near the tip of the island is the Children’s Peace Monument, with thousands of paper cranes in display cases. Sadoko Sasaki, a schoolgirl who died of leukemia as a result of the radiation, made 1,000 origami cranes in the belief that the feat would grant her wish to survive. Her friends and classmates raised money for a statue featuring her lifting a crane overhead.
We passed reflecting ponds, an eternal flame and the Cenotaph for the Victims, which contains registries of all the victims and the words “Let all the souls here rest in peace, for we shall not repeat the evil.”
Our final stop was the Peace Memorial Museum, where we had an hour to explore its displays of life in Hiroshima before the blast, pictures and displays depicting the disaster and an exploration of the dangers of nuclear weapons.
I left feeling numb from the experience. It will probably take some time to absorb. And a few days from now, the process will repeat at Nagasaki. These visits remind me a bit of visiting encampments in Africa where slaves were held before making the Middle Passage. Sobering, to be sure, but necessary to better to understand our complex history as humans.
Before visiting the atomic bomb sites in Hiroshima, we spent an hour in the Shukkeien Gardens, a “shrunken garden” built more than 400 years ago by a feudal lord. The pathways and bridges represent a miniature landscape of streams, lakes and mountains.
I made a few rough sketches, but none of them inspired me to go further. Perhaps I’m getting tired of using my green watercolors.
Once I was back on the ship, I did paint my sketch of the Atomic Bomb Dome, as there wasn’t time during our tour.
The evening ended with a dance on the Lido deck, complete with paper cranes and photo backdrops. After leaving Hiroshima, we’re all looking forward to a sea day tomorrow before another bunch of Japanese ports, this time on the Sea of Japan. It will all be new territory for me.
You were the editor of the Independence Examiner? I grew up in Independence and now live in Lee’s Summit. Back in the day my parents subscribed to the KC Star, KC Times and the Examiner.
I’m hoping you’ll paint a tourist site for me and my husband when we cruise together June 29-July 27, 2025 on the Nieuw Statendam!
Hi Jo,
I’ve visited Hiroshima twice – once as a guest of the Japanese Self Defense Force, and once as a dedicated tourist with Megan. The place leaves me with mixed emotions. Clearly there was a loss of life on a scale we hope will never be repeated, particularly away from a military battlefield. As bad as Hiroshima and Nagasaki were, the even greater loss of life during the firebombing of Tokyo failed to bring Japan to peace talks. I suspect many PhDs will be written about the merit, or otherwise of the bombing of Hiroshima, and even more complicated, the bombing of Nagasaki, and how many more lives would have been lost had there been an invasion of the home islands. After the mass suicides by both enemy combatants and civilians witnessed by US troops on Okinawa, an invasion of the home islands may have resulted in similar, and possibly much greater mass casualty events. Whether the invasion, and possible mass suicides would have occurred or not will never be known, but what is certain is that countless allied lives were saved by avoiding the invasion. By the time of the A-bomb attacks, Japanese strongholds in the Pacific had largely been isolated by an enormously successful allied (largely submarine) naval blockade. Starving themselves, the Japanese in these locations had no provisions for their POWs, and such actions as the Sandakan death march were initiated. I suspect that few of the POWs who did survive lost any sleep over the dropping of the A-bombs. One of those POWs was Megan’s father.
Really powerful post, Jo! Moving story.
I’m glad you have new ports to explore!
Thank you for continuing your blog. I really enjoy it.
A very moving and somber post. I have never been there . I will never look at a crane in the same way again.
Thank you for sharing with us
A very moving and somber post. I have never been there . I will never look at a crane in the same way
Thanks for posting your visits. I will be on the westerdam next year from September thru November. Reading your posts let’s me know where I need to visit.
I couldn’t do the Nagasaki war memorial after Hiroshima so I went into the city on my own. Had a great day and discovered quite a bit about the Dutch history there and saw the Puccini statue as Madam Butterfly takes place in Nagasaki.
I love strolling through cities and this is a good one if you don’t want another war experience.
I went to Hiroshima in 1983 as part of a study program sponsored by the University of Washington at Seattle. Having taught John Hersey’s book to students and lectured to adults about the decision to use atomic weapons, I was keen to see the city for myself.
We took the bullet train from Kyoto to Hiroshima and on the way, we made paper cranes to place on Sadako’s monument.
After walking through the major features of the site, I went to the museum shop to purchase some educational materials to use in my work back home. At the time, I had been studying Japanese for a while and was able to speak to the saleswoman in her language. She responded to my request for materials by filling a large bag with all sorts of things, from slides to books in English. When I tried to pay her, she refused my money, stating in Japanese, “Use these materials to teach your students what happened here.”
I never forget that day in Hiroshima. I has stayed with me and it will stay with you. And I continue to read about the decision to drop the bomb and, a couple of weeks ago, I just finished a magnificent book called Road to Surrender by Evan Thomas. There is a great deal of new scholarship in this book — things I didn’t know. But, it is highly readable. And I marveled was how Americans in govt leadership positions weighed the decision very carefully. They looked at the moral implications, the impact of US soldiers enduring possibly another brutal year of fighting and many other factors. Those US leaders also went to their graves haunted about what they did, even though they felt they had to do it.
Japan was my first love as an educator and yet, I have never lectured on a cruise ship about Japan. That is about to change. I plan to spend the next year developing talks on this fascinating country and will be sure to write a talk on Hiroshima.
Jo, your postings about Japan are like little treasures to me. Thank-you for all you do to inform people about your travels. It matters a lot.
Thank you for your thoughtful treatment of this subject.