When you look at Hiroshima today – bustling and beautiful – it’s hard to imagine the complete devastation of the atomic bomb drop just over 70 years ago. And I know that it’s not easy to visit places where you’re faced with the history of great tragedy, but if you’re traveling to Japan, think about stopping by the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum to better understand the effects of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima and its people (and their resilience and strength as they worked to rebuild their city).

Each exhibit about the culmination of World War II, the dropping of the bomb and its aftermath are informative, but it’s also a very emotional experience. Perhaps the most sobering exhibits (at least for me) are the personal items and stories on display of victims of the bombing. I held it together pretty well until a docent told a group of us about a photo of people waiting in line for medical attention not too long after the bomb fell – how the photographer knew he had to document this but he stood for nearly 20 minutes mesmerized by the pain and horror of it all.

Tiny cranes on display, folded by Sadako Sasaki, a young girl exposed to radiation when the bomb fell when she was only a toddler. Years later when she was 12 years old, she was diagnosed with leukemia and passed away soon after.

A watch that stopped at 8:15 a.m., the time the bomb hit Hiroshima on August 6, 1945.

After we left the museum, we visited the Children’s Peace Monument – a tribute to Sadako and the thousands of other children who were victims of the bombing.

The monument is surrounded by glass boxes where visitors can leave their own folded cranes in a hopeful promise for better days and in remembrance.

My travel companions and I hung up our own cranes – a small labor of love that we had folded on the train ride over.

Behind the colorful cranes, you can step out onto a walking path and see the Genbaku or Atomic Bomb Dome across the way. It’s called this because it was the only structure still standing so close to the bomb’s hypocenter (where the atomic bomb hit).

I sat down on a bench and marveled at the juxtaposition and the significance of this defiant building sitting in the sun, next to a lazily flowing river. People rode bikes and chatted with each other animatedly as they walked by – life, like the water, ebbed on.

I’m looking forward to coming back to Hiroshima – a city with so much to offer. This time around, I didn’t get to visit Hiroshima Castle, try their version of okonomiyaki or take the short ferry ride to the neighboring small island of Miyajima (amongst many other great sites to see). I can’t wait until my next trip.

I didn’t get to ride their electric railway either, which is a travesty, because I love streetcars.

Be Good to Each Other,
Katie