Hiroshima

[marbs34]

Took this picture on my outing to Hiroshima today.

Apparently this is what's left after an Atomic Bomb and nearly 70 years.

I took the museum tour the peace park and it was quite sobering. I don't really have much else i want to say about it.

 

[pcdad]

geez..I was a history buff whe I was a kid til my late teens..I watched EVERYTHING that was on the history channel and NEVER saw something still stading after the A bomb was dropped til this day!!..very fascinating sir!

 

[bjh618]

My grandfather served as part of the Allied Occupation force in Hiroshima after they dropped the atom bomb. We have some really surreal photos at home that he took of the devastation not long after he was deployed there. It looks like an apocalyptic wasteland.

I've always wanted to visit Hiroshima and that is a great shot.

 

[WhosYerBob]

Some of the structures with reinforced concrete still remained standing with terrible damage.

 

[Seraphim]

No pics, but I wrote this after visiting Nagasaki a few years ago:

We all have seen the scratchy black & white film, taken from 30,000 feet: a tremendous ball of fire, rising up into a gigantic mushroom cloud—Nagasaki had just had an atomic bomb dropped on it.

So, that is our usual impression of it, an image we’ve seen on our televisions on and off throughout the years. And we file it away in our collective memories, Nagasaki---atomic bombing. But it was so long ago, and it happened halfway around the world from us. It is so hard to comprehend, the magnitude of that event.

It is quite a different experience to visit Nagasaki itself and to stand at the memorial that marks the hypocenter of the atomic bombing. It is a small grassy park in the middle of the now rebuilt city. The monument is a set of large concentric rings centered around a tall black obelisk, in front of which is a black marble sarcophagus that contains within it listings of all of the names of the victims of the blast. I stand at the very spot that mushroom cloud towered above 57 years ago.

It’s poignant to see that Nagasaki has grown back to be a bustling modern city once again, as it was at that time. Nagasaki isn’t, and wasn’t a black and white film. It was a warm coastal city surrounded by verdant green mountains, with a blue sky above. Even the weather was similar when I visited, a nice day, warm, around 80 degrees. At 11:02 that August morning the city was blasted, flattened, irradiated, and caught fire. 73,884 deaths, 74.909 injured. Most of the destruction occurred within 10 seconds of the blast, the shockwave traveling at the speed of sound.

At the Atomic Bomb Museum there are many artifacts, everyday items melted by the heat, steel beams twisted by the tremendous force, a clock stopped at the exact moment of destruction. There are also many personal accounts recorded by survivors. One of who expresses how completely words fail to be able to convey what happened.

Near to the museum and hypocenter is the Nagasaki Peace Park. I walk through the park; the foundations of a building that is no more, the fountain built in tribute to the thousands of people who died pleading for water to drink when there was none, the statue expressing hope that the world will never again repeat the horror of nuclear war.

Two young Japanese guys stop me, they can’t speak any English. I’ve been through this before at other tourist spots: they want me to take their picture, right? Actually, no…they want to have their picture taken with me.

I stand in the Peace Park with a complete stranger posing for a photograph. Our arms around each other’s shoulders. An American, and a Japanese. It’s a sunny day in Nagasaki, we’re both smiling.

 

[Isaac]

This happens to be Hiroshima today

 

[ogopogo]

Took this picture on my outing to Hiroshima today.

Apparently this is what's left after an Atomic Bomb and nearly 70 years.

I took the museum tour the peace park and it was quite sobering. I don't really have much else i want to say about it.

Do you know what this building was?

 

[johnmrson]

I've seen a porcelain cup that was found near Ground Zero in Hiroshima. The glaze on it had been turned back into a liquid and run before cooling and setting again. Glaze doesn't run until 1250 degrees to 1400 degrees.

 

[Seraphim]

Do you know what this building was?

Here you go.

 

[Gruder]

Very interesting. Many thanks for sharing.

 

[blackfoot]

very interesting. Many thanks for sharing.

+1

 

[Monkeydad]

 

[ogopogo]

Here you go.

Thanks

Building designed by Czech architect Jan Letzel and completed in 1915. Known from 1933 on as the Hiroshima Prefectural Industrial Promotion Hall.

 

[moshulu]

I visited the site 4-5 years ago. It was August, very hot. I got there around midnight and sat on the embankment, looking at the wrecked dome and the water. I have always been fascinated by nuclear weapons and even did some technical work in that field, so this was an important trip for me, and my mind was full of many thoughts. But what I remember most from that night - and I sat there for at least two hours - was that local people would pass by every few minutes, on bicycles and on foot, and notice me - an obvious American - sitting there. They smiled at me, but the saddest smiles, the kind you give to a friend who is grieving, ones I will never forget.

 

[blackfoot]

I visited the site 4-5 years ago. It was August, very hot. I got there around midnight and sat on the embankment, looking at the wrecked dome and the water. I have always been fascinated by nuclear weapons and even did some technical work in that field, so this was an important trip for me, and my mind was full of many thoughts. But what I remember most from that night - and I sat there for at least two hours - was that local people would pass by every few minutes, on bicycles and on foot, and notice me - an obvious American - sitting there. They smiled at me, but the saddest smiles, the kind you give to a friend who is grieving, ones I will never forget.

Now, that is touching.

 

[Valkosipuli]

I've been there my self few times. It looks good now, but the pictures of the place after the bombing is terrible.

 

[ctakim]

If you visit Hiroshima, it is a very modern city with no trace of the war with the sole exception of the famous building shown here. As I recall there is a museum there that at least 20 years ago, was fairly well done.

 

[GoldenMonkey]

...

 

[Seamonkey311]

I would love to visit Japan someday and would definitely visit the memorial. I wonder if there is still shadows left on the walls.

 

[Jim]

The Japanese White Pine (Pinus parviflora 'Miyajima') bonsai sometimes known as Hiroshima Survivor, on display at the National Bonsai & Penjing Museum at the United States National Arboretum. According to the tree's display placard, it has been in training since 1625. It survived the atomic blast in Hiroshima on August 6, 1945, and was donated by Masaru Yamaki.

http://www.bonsai-nbf.org/site/japanese2.html