Hiroshima Peace Museum & Gardens

We visited the Hiroshima Peace Museum this morning. This was a heartbreaking and eye opening display on the atomic bombing of Hiroshima at the end of WWII. On Aug 6, 1945 at 8:15am the United States dropped “Little Boy,” a uranium-235 atomic bomb. The blast covered a 2km radius, destroying 92% of the buildings in the area and killed 140,000 people by the end of the year. Many more died later in life. For example, the museum highlighted a young girl, Sadako Sasaki, who was two years old when the atomic bomb was dropped. She lived a bright and healthy life. Then, at age 10, she died of "atomic bomb disease," or Leukemia. While in the hospital, she made thousands of paper cranes out of the paper her medicine was in. The crane is a sacred bird in Japan and lives for a hundred years. It is thought that if a sick person folds 1,000 paper cranes, then that person would soon get well. Now the paper crane is used as a symbol of peace at Hiroshima because of her experience. Despite the museum being very raw and heart wrenching, it had a strong message of peace. This kind of weapon should never be used again. I hope that no other city has to live through this horrific experience ever again. That is what I told the kids as we went through. This is really sad, but it is sad so you will remember when you are president how awful atomic bombs are and will seek to find peace in other ways. Target cities were chosen based on size, topography and to maximize psychological damage. Practiced bombing with “practice pumpkins” Nagasaki was bombed 3 days later with “Fat Man” plutonium bomb. That explosion was aprox 500 meters with 36% of buildings destroyed and 74,000 people died that year. Robbie’s grandfather, Lester Chaney, was drafted to WWII. He was a recover and came to Hiroshima 3 weeks after the bombing. Robbie said he never would talk about his was service, and it makes sense now why. He died of colon cancer. In the peace garden, the kids rang the peace bell. The garden was beautiful with the fall leaves. I loved the memorial with the oragami crane chains. You could also see the atomic dome, a building they have left in ruins as a memorial.