A Post to Depress You

When Lydia and I were in Hiroshima a few days ago, we visited the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum, a collection devoted to the atomic bomb attacks in 1945. If you are a huge nerd, as we both are, then I highly recommend it. Even if you're not a nerd, I recommend it, but either way, put your learning cap on and don't forget to bring some Kleenex.

I had read that visiting the museum is an intense experience and I agree, which really says something when you consider that Lydia and I both have hearts of stone. The heaviest part was near the end, where there were displays of clothing, possessions and remains of A-Bomb victims. If you ever wanted to know what 50+ year old pieces of hair, skin and nails look like (you creepy, sick person), you can find it there.

One thing I was really impressed with was how balanced the displays were. I never felt like they were painting the Japanese out to be victims; in fact, it seemed like they were taking responsiblity for all the events that led up to the attack.

At first, I thought it might be somewhat disrespectful to take pictures, but then I saw some tourists shooting photos....with flash. How rude. So I thought I could at least be less Gaijin than that and I snapped away.

The museum

Hiroshima before...

...and after

A globe showing the distribution of nuclear arms around the world...Guess who has the most?

Upclose you can see the skin melting off their hands

Peace Memorial Hall

The fountain clock in the middle reads 8:15, the moment the bomb dropped