There are few places I’ve been, well no place I’ve been, which has effected me like Hiroshima.
I didn’t know what to expect or how I would feel.
But before that…At school as a seventeen year old I studied World War II as part of my major modern history work towards my HSC. My main focus was on Nazism and how one person could amass such a following. In addition to the fanaticism associated with Nazism I also explored the concept of Kamikaze: similarly fanatical.
So visiting the place where the West simply said, “We’d had enough” (in the most devastating fashion) was going to twist my emotions in ways they’ve never been twisted before.
We alighted the train and made our way to peace park at around 3pm. We’d spent much of the day on Itsukushima Island. We’d seen the Otorii gate, the protected deer on the island and ascended to the top and took in the view.
It was an overcast day, warm, but evening was in the air as the cool air starting to flood in as we walked the short distance to the peace dome.
When we arrived, I just stopped and took in the enormity of the moment. It was as if I was all of a sudden on my own. Mardi kept walking, Mick and Kelli kept walking. Everyone around me disappeared. I was transfixed. I couldn’t take a photo, part of me felt that would be disrespectful. (I did end up taking photos once I’d recovered, see the gallery below).
As I walked, I was overcome with emotion. On August 6, 1945 some 150,000 (estimates vary) people were instantly killed. Most of them civilians. To stand here on that spot some 73 years later was surreal. During my school days I had said to my mum, bless her soul, i’d like to visit to understand more about it. Well here I was. And wow did I understand. I burst into tears. So much death, so much destruction. The enormity of the decision taken by the allies at the time to end the war. although this bomb didn’t do it: the next one did.
I circumnavigated the space, lost in my droughts and my emotions. After the initial wave of emotion had passed, a serene feeling came over me. I returned to the world. People walking around, quietly, respectfully around me. Although wha had happened here was devastating, the dome, this building now represented eternal peace and a reminder of the devastation of atomic warfare.
