Hiroshima and so on

Wednesday morning I got up and spent 4 hours on 3 trains, some of which at almost 200mph, all to complete a lifelong pilgrimage. I was wondering if it would be worth a half day travelling there and half a day travelling back for an afternoon and a morning.

A watch stopped at 8.15, Aug 6th 1945

Wow, was it ever! I thought had absorbed as much as can be absorbed from the discovery channel, but it was almost overpowering being there. Seeing the place where the nature of war changed. The echoes of that explosion are still reverberating around the world. If you're in Japan, I recommend you go. The peace museum hammers home the message of the overpowering destructive nature of these weapons, and makes the personal tragedies that day really clear. It's odd to see the personal effects of victims (Hibakusha); sets of clothes in which people were exposed (and shortly after, died), the watches stopped at exactly 8.15 AM, hair that fell out in the following days that relatives kept. You get to see the stark and sudden intrusion of the war into people's everyday lives.  

The peace dome, peace flame and centotaph

It was also interesting to see some of the background behind the choice of target cities. I had always assumed that Japan was the target because Germany had surrendered, but not so. The Manhattan project knew they'd be ready go for months before Germany surrendered, but Churchill and Roosevelt had already decided to target Japan for all sorts of strategic reasons. (See here for a more accurate explanation than I could give. Bless Wikipedia!) Seeing the back and forth in the letters between staff at the War Dept and Churchill and Roosevelt is eyeopening. The decision was taken pretty coldly and clinically, with an eye firmly on gaining the upper hand in the cold war with Russia they already knew was fomenting, and a desire to appease the people back home that all those lovely dollars they's spent on The Manhattan Project hadn't been wasted. Yes folks, it came to that. We bought it, might as well use it. Nuclear war was unleashed, at heart, by Yorkshiremen. 

"Well, our lass, that's a lovely bomb tha's made." 

"Ar, that it is. Shame Japan's nearly ready to surrender, our Pa. 'S probably not even needed, now."

"Well, let it of quick, love. Be a shame to waste it!"

"Boom!"

On a lighter note, I had a lovely dinner. Hiroshima is known for its Okonimiyaki, and I had cracking ones last night. Even better, having checked in alone I swiftly found new chums to head off with, and Okonomiyaki is good in a group. 5 of us sat round a communal hot plate and enjoyed watching our dinner being prepared, before successfully putting away shrimp, noodles, cabbage, cheese, squid and pork with our chopsticks. Yumsk! 

This morning I set the alarm for 6.50 in order to get breakfasted and all trammed up in time to get out to Miyajima. I had been faithfully informed by a dear friend that it was the best view in Japan. The clouds were not not onside, it was decidedly overcast and yet this charming island did not disappoint. The key feature of this island in the south of Hiroshima is the entrance gate to the Shinto temple, made in steel and set out in the water such that at high tide it seems to be floating. Well worth the visit.  It left me in a great mood to sit on the next shinkansen to Kyoto, wherein I write this, city of even more awesome autumnal leaf action and a zillion temples! The 96 minutes on the shinkansen was put to great use writing up this Sunday's sermon. I'm so excited about it, I get to start advent! I plan to post that up soon. If you see a long post with no pictures, that's it. 

Torii gate, Mirajima.

Autumnal leaves, temple, Kyoto.

Enough for now, more random musings tomorrow...