Hiroshima - The city of peace.

All of us have heard stories about the second world war, how Hiroshima and Nagasaki were bombed, how they bounced back with resilience and are in the world race again. We are all aware that Nuclear bombs are perhaps the cruelest and most hazardous things (to put it mildly) man has ever discovered. But only on visiting the Peace Memorial museum at Hiroshima did I realise the seriousness of the situation.

6th August, 1945, 8:15 am.

The bomb detonates. A blinding flash. Buildings crushed. People evaporated leaving shadows behind. Heat waves swipe over the city. Confusion among those who are alive. Pain, grief and agony hanging in the atmosphere.

When I went to the memorial, I saw relics from the aftermath. And they have struck a chord. In the first half of the building, it was pretty light, with how and why the war started along with a simple background of what all was going on. But in the second half, it got deeper. They talked of how different people had suffered. How one person's family found a lunch box and another only a slipper. The stories of kids who just survived the attack but died within a few days were even more heartbreaking! The neighbours of one child found him badly injured with burns all over his body - it was as if multiple layers of his skin was peeled off. He cried for his mother for two days before passing away. 

We saw smashed up tin, broken brick walls and burnt metal. They even had black deformed pieces of nails, lumps of skin and a school uniform put together. The school uniform that was put together was actually three peices from three different people. Simply put, it was emotionally scarring.

Apart from all the sadness that hits you like a brick, when you hear stories of survivors who are alive even currently, you feel amazed. One story goes like this. A boy (who is a man now!) was playing in the park when this blast occured. The park was far away from his house and he saw that all his friends were sprawled on the floor. Somehow, he managed to stand up and started walking home. On his way he found a friend who stayed nearby (and was hurt on the underside of his foot) and tried to help him walk. His relief at seeing his great uncle and great aunt later was unimaginable!

It's pretty sad that even after this tragedy, we have not stopped the manufacture of nuclear weapons. USA, Russia, U.K., France, China, India, Pakistan and Israel are in the top. North Korea is a mystery. This has to come to an end. It already is a wonder how Hiroshima has come up. If you step inside it, looking at the greenery, the transport systems and houses, you may once forget it's past. And I salute it for the same!

Kanksha :)

The  pictures I had were pretty gruesome and saddening - not that the post isn't...but I pictures just make it feel more real :(