Hiroshima, a day to remember

First, Emily, don't read this to Ainsley, it's too scary for her! Yesterday, we took the Shinkansen (bullet train) 3.5 hours to Hiroshima for an overnight visit. We planned to do the A-bomb stuff our first day and then a castle and garden on sunday. We had an authentic Japanese meal first, I had tempura, which was nice. All the women wore kimonos. Then it was off to the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum, which was extremely hard and set the tone for the rest of the trip. I have to say that I could never ever live in Hiroshima. I had a constant feeling of tension while I was there just thinking of what happened and the fact that the US was the one to do it. Everywhere you look there are reminders of that day. In the museum, they show a brief video providing a basic understanding of what happened and then you can read a history of Hiroshima until the bomb. Then they have a video of the bomb dropping and these models of the city before and after the bomb. I've read books on it but I still didn't realize the extent of the damage. Literally almost every building was flattened (I couldn't bring myself to take pictures in the museum, but I found these on another blog). There is information about why Hiroshima was picked (the deciding factor the day of was the weather was nicest there, talk about bad luck). There is more information about the bomb itself and the plea for peace. I was impressed by the overall message that agreed that Japan had done its fair share of bad things as well so this need for peace applies to them as well. It is all about "justice" for the victims, and by "justice" they mean never letting this happen again, not getting revenge. Then there's a gift shop, so I thought it was done, but alas no. They made a sort of model of walking through a building where you look at the buildings and see the damage outside and then they have dummies displaying the damage near the center (skin hanging off, burns, fires, etc.). Then they had relics from the damage, mainly charred and shredded clothing and a story to go with each. This was the hardest part for me (if you haven't read the book "Hiroshima" you should because no one, especially anyone in a country with the bomb should be ignorant of its effects). The stories were horrifying. The worst was a small pile of fingernails from a boy who had been near the center and his skin was ripped to shreds. His friend got him back home where he died hours later but he had been so thirsty he had tried to drink the pus from his wounded fingers. His mother took the nails to give his father who was still away at war. (The water was contaminated from radiation and people throwing themselves into the water to drown). Then it went into the aftereffects of the bomb on people, like the need for medical supplies, cancers, radiation sickness, etc. They even had the hair from a young woman whose mother brushed her hair and in 3 brushes it had all fallen out from radiation sickness. They focused on the girl who died at 12 from leukemia and had made paper cranes thinking it would cure her, making the cranes a sign of peace. Then they talk more about how the bomb works on a molecular level. You can watch movies on it as well but we chose not to. After that, you can see a stone coffin outside for the people who were never buried. From there you can see the only ruin still standing and preserved (an educational building I believe) which is very eerie. I do have one MAJOR COMPLAINT. There was a small group of young men in the museum and I am terribly ashamed of the United States Military because of their actions. They clearly were members of it and went through making fun of things and saying stuff like, "I still don't feel bad about it." I swear, if it wasn't a peace museum, I would have beat the shit out of them.
Today, we went to castle, which was destroyed in the bomb, but rebuilt and it's now a museum for the various leaders and such. Lots of swords and armor and at the top you have a great view. Then it was off to Shukkeien which is an absolutely beautiful garden designed for a former leader. I was in awe of it all and at the end I realized the horrible history behind it. Apparently it was leveled by the bomb except for one tree that is still there. People came there, seeking help but never got it and all died. There bodies were turned into the soil and the garden was all put back together again. Even when you walk around shopping you see little plaques or memorials relating to the bomb. I could never live there with that constant sorry, not to mention they talked a lot about all the radiation and unknown stuff about that so as you walk about town, you tend to wonder....