Hiroshima Part #1

I am continuing today with my retro diary of an April trip to Japan. The final stop on my three tiered jaunt through the land of the rising sun found me in Hiroshima. I doubt few adult people in the world can hear the name of this beautiful and charming Japanese city and not immediately think of August 6, 1945. Its a day when Hiroshima, chosen only because of cloud cover over another Japanese city, became the epicenter, literally and figuratively, of the world's glimpse at the incredible destructive power of the atom. It stands today, rebuilt, as a testament to the resiliency, fortitude and positive attitude of the Japanese people. While strolling through the tree lined streets of Hiroshima on a pleasant, sunny spring day, I was hard pressed to find residue of the the city's tragic past in the faces of the smiling Japanese people I passed, many of them offering a smile and a "Konichiwa". As an American, I expected to be treated much differently by the Hiroshima citizens, or at least the guilt I felt gnawing at my stomach, against common sense, portended a much harsher treatment. Instead, I was awed by the ability of the Japanese to forgive, and stunned with how they view the dropping of the bomb. After talking to several Hiroshima tour guides, it seems that they accept what happened as a consequence of their actions in the war, and deem it an acceptable price to pay for taking part in World War II. They harbor no ill will towards America, and in fact, have turned the greatest simultaneous mass human killing in history into a world wide cry for peace. When visiting the Peace Museum, one can't help but wonder if the entire world had the optimistic outlook and forgiving hearts of these Japanese people if war would be a thing of the past.
As I mentioned earlier, Hiroshima has been rebuilt, and appearances lead me to believe its a thriving, mid sized Japanese city, much like a Columbus, Ohio or Richmond, Virginia. There is, however, one stark reminder of this city's dalliance with the atomic devil. Its called the A-Bomb Dome, and its one of the largest structures in the city, hard to miss, but its size isn't what gripped me as I stared upwards at the twisted mass of metal near the top of the dome. Largely left untouched since that fateful day over 65 years ago, its a monument to the city, those killed by the bomb, and those that survive today. It is located only a few thousand meters from where the bomb exploded, and was one of the few buildings in the entire city left standing after the explosion. The Japanese originally wanted to tear it down, but as they came to terms with the disaster, they came to embrace this building, and its sobering glimpse at a horrific moment in history.