Hiroshima Atomic Bomb Museum (原爆博物館)

What follows are pictures from inside the Hiroshima Atomic Bomb Museum. Up above you can find pictures from the peace park area.

The A-Bomb Museum and Peace Park area opened on August 24, 1955. The museum was significantly renovated and expanded in 1981, however, due to criticism that the previous exhibitions victimized Japan and downplayed the country's wartime aggression. Thus, 1981 saw the inclusion of a series of wall panels that illustrate Japan's aggression in the Pacific leading up to and during WWII. Steps were also taken to make the museum less graphic in nature and more accessible for younger audiences.

Indeed, the only corridor in the entire museum that comes close to being called "graphic," is merely a representation of a burned out building with painted manikins playing the role of the victims. Other than that, and a few glass cases that house hair and fingernail remnants, the museum is entirely historical.

In July 1995, a 50th anniversary exhibition of WWII A-Bomb artifacts from Hiroshima and Nagasaki was planned at the Smithsonian, however, fierce protests by US veterans and others forced the cancellation of the exhibition. To this day, the atomic bomb museums in Hiroshima and Nagasaki are the only places to see such artifacts in the world.

Adjacent to the A-Bomb Museum is the slightly different "Heiwa" or Peace Museum. This museum documents the continued effort of social advocacy groups within Japan to bring about the end of nuclear arms possession and proliferation worldwide.

While in the aforementioned "graphic" burned out building hallway in the A-Bomb museum, I found myself packed in with Japanese grade school students and laregely unable to move. One Japanese kid, a young boy to my right spotted the newest addition to my ever elongating cell phone strap, the NTT DoCoMo mushroom mascot (think Toad from Super Mario Bros.), and started commenting on it to his friends in Japanese. I struck up a conversation with him, and soon his friends all encircled me in order to catch a glimpse of the gaijin who could speak Japanese. The boy looked me in the eyes and asked me in Japanese what I thought about the A-Bomb.

I was already emotionally weakened by the museum and the sheer gravity of being in Hiroshima (it always affects me very strongly). I talked emotionally for a good three or four minutes and told him my opinion, saying that not every American agrees with the actions of wartime governments, and calling the bombings "saiyaku" (the worst) and dai-shippai (a massive failiure). I didn't cry, but my eyes did get moist. He smiled. I smiled back.

Next, he produced a folded up piece of paper from his pocket and upon making a mark with his pencil, shouted, "Hey, it's over there, there's nobody in front of it now," and darted off with his friends in tow, saying a passing "arigato" in my general direction. It was all for a museum scavenger hunt and that little kid played me like a harp.

I continued downstairs to the special exhibition of artwork and black and white pictures from the bombing. I spent a while there looking at all the pictures and all the horror. I left the museum feeling very sad as expected.

B.E.W.