By: Jessica Idenoshita
Upon our return from Miyajima Island, we visited the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum. On our way to the museum, we walked through the Heiwa Koen (Peace Memorial Park) where we saw the Atomic Bomb Dome. The Genbaku Dome or Atomic Bomb Dome, which used to be the Hiroshima Prefectural Industrial Promotion Hall, was the only building near the hypocenter of the atomic bomb blast left standing. While walking past the Genbaku Dome, we were greeted by several Japanese high school students who were collecting signatures to prevent the use of nuclear weapons so that there are “No More Hiroshimas.” It was my first time signing a petition in a foreign country and I’m glad that I got to help the local students who are advocating for a more peaceful future so that such a devastating tragedy never happens again.
Genbaku Dome at the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park
Another memorial within the park
Once inside the museum, the exhibits graphically illustrated Hiroshima city before and after the bomb, along with personal stories of the victims and families in great detail. Every piece of artifact on display, from pieces of clothing and name tags, belonged to many young innocent civilians whose family members were also heartbreakingly affected by the bomb. Although this was not my first time visiting the Peace Memorial Museum, it was still such a powerful and moving experience seeing all the artwork, photographs, and reading the detailed accounts of the disastrous aftermath. The accounts that illustrated how the victims asked those who came to help for water because of their severe burns, made me feel emotional because they were similar to the story my 80-year-old grandpa told me, who is also a hibakusha (survivor affected by one of the atomic bombs dropped on Japan) since he entered the hypocenter to aid civilians and lives in Hiroshima to this day.
Exhibit of everyday items in the hypocenter when the bomb was dropped
Towards the end of the exhibit hall, there was a display of tiny origami cranes made by Sadako Sasaki, a twelve-year-old who passed away from leukemia due to the effects of the radiation from the bomb. Sadako folded one thousand cranes hoping that her wish for getting better would come true. Seeing such intricate and beautiful cranes that Sadako folded throughout her life despite pain, the paper cranes will forever symbolize courage to me. It was touching to learn that when Sadako was in sixth grade, her classmates founded the Unity Club to visit Sadako in the hospital and started the Thousand Cranes Movement, which eventually helped create the Children’s Peace Monument that we visited during our walk through the Peace Memorial Park. Even after more than 60 years following her death, Sadako’s classmates wanted to keep their kindhearted classmate’s story alive so that people would know of her strength throughout her short life and how such a devastating event can never occur again.
Paper cranes folded by Sadako exhibit
I am very glad we got to visit the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum because it is important and valuable to know of the tragic history and stories of the victims of the atomic bomb that took the lives of more than 100,000 people. I was able to get a much greater and deeper understanding of the impacts of what happened the morning of August 6th, 1945 that textbooks cannot fully convey.