Day 54: The Real Woodstock

Yesterday, I had planned to go over to Miyajima a supposedly quaint town across the Sento Inland Sea, famous for its HUGE floating Torii Gate. However, I decided I wanted to go ahead and immerse myself in Hiroshima and its significance by touring the Peace Park and Museum frist thing. I am staying at the World Friendship Center. Ron and Barb are the volunteers running the guesthouse and center (which holds a multitude of distinct english classes for the locals and other activities for hibakusha--A Bomb survivors). Barb told me the incredible account of how the Friendship Center was founded by Barbara Reynolds, which I won`t recount here but well I just feel so blessed to be styaying here and get so much information and advice I never would have gotten about the city otherwise. I heard this story over a lovely breakfast with the only other guest, who happens to be a student from an alternative college in Vermont (300 students only), who has designed his own study abroad program and is interning for 6 months at the Peace Cultural Foundation and staying at the Center temporarily.

I headed first to the Peace Museum where I was told by Barb to ask if I could get an english tour (given free by volunteers). They told me to go ahead and see the museum. After about 10mins a man approached me and I asked if he would still be available after I toured the museum and he said that was fine. The funny thing is he found me again over an hour later and he was shocked to find out I hadn`t even left the first room! He took a few minutes to explain the famous photo (one of the only) taken right after the bomb went off. It was taken my a reported, who says he struggled for 3 hours before he finally was able to take a photo. He,Yoshito Matsushige, wrote a book called `My Viewfinder Clouded with Tears,` which I want to look into. My guide also showed me to the examples of some 1000 letters written by various Hiroshima mayors to world leaders. Since the bombing of Hiroshima, every time a country has tested a nuclear weapon, the mayor writes a letter pleading with them to join in the fight for the abolition of nuclear weapons. The last one was written in October 2010 after a testing done on September18, 2010 to, guess who? Mr. Barak Obama.　wow.

So I say that Hiroshima is the Real Woodstock because from the time of the A-bombing to now they have been dedicated to be the City of Peace for the world. And unlike Woodstock, which I loved for its hippy (I mean men walking around without shirts, peace signs everywhere, loooooong hair, motorcycles) and progressive feel, Hiroshima is DEDICATED in its very being to peace and the fight for abolition of nuclear weapons. It is incredible to be witness to this here.

I spent probably around 3.5hrs touring the museum. It was overloaded with the details that led up to the A-Bombing, the actual event, the shock afterwards, the recovery, the long term effects on people, and their continuing work towards peace today. It was a beautifully done museum and VERY informative. I also really enjoyed how non-biased it was. I learned things I had not known before such as the harsh conditions inflicted on the Japanese people by the goverment during the wartime leading up to the bombing and also that the US had occupied Japan for 6 or 7 yrs after Japans surrender and had kept a press code that kept information about what had really happened in Hiroshima from getting out for some time. This is why it took so long for many hibakusha to get treatment or even any kind of emotional support services (like the World Frienship Center offered and still does).

After the museum, I met my volunteer tour kind. He gave me a tour around the park. The most incredible part of the tour were the photos he showed me of the places were standing right now, but right after the bomb. I was taken to the hypocenter and shown the A-Domb Dome. This once modern building is preserved in the nearly exact condition it was found in after the bombing. It looks to me looks like a set from a play, and sets a stark reminder among the newly built buildings around it of how this was one of the only standing structures after the bombing on August 6th, 1945. Some other notable parts of the tour were the 1) Peace Clock, which strikes only once a day at 8:15am, the time of the bombing, so that no one will forget, 2) the Children`s Peace Monument, errected in honor of Sadako, the child who folded nearly 1300 paper cranes before she died from Lukemia due to radiation exposure from the bomb (I think many of us read a childrens story about her when we were young), and 3) the memorial hall, a place for survivors and others to sit and reflect. Here, while finishing a cup of coffee (from a machine that allowed you to choose how strong you wanted it as well as how much milk and sugar) a Japanese lady came up to me with a flyer and pointed from it to a tag on her bag with the same script. The attendant at the desk explianed to me that she was a survivor on a 100-day world tour. I knew it was quite possible to run into survivors in Hiroshima, especially at the park, but I was really dumbfounded to come face to face with her. She reached out her hand and I simply took it and said it is so nice to meet you. She smiled happily and seemed to understand.

I spent the rest of the day shopping...haha! I went to an 8-story 100 Yen store, a Japanese H&M type store and then bought some real Japanese fashion type clothes from a secondhand place for soooooo cheap! I came back to the center TOTALLY wiped out! Okay, well I just took a REALLY long morning, off to Miyajima! Think warm thoughts for me--its sooooo cold!