Hiroshima

Hiroshima.  The name alone carries a weight that's grown heavier since my visit, but I'm not going to use an internet blog as a podium to speak out against war or nuclear weapons or horrific acts of violence.  The Peace Museum did an excellent job painting the full picture, not solely focusing on the horrors of the bomb and it's aftermath, but also denouncing the atrocities carried out by an imperialistic Japan.  The museum simply presented the facts and I aim to do the same thing.

In the picture above, you can see the Atomic Bomb Dome, which stands about 500 feet away from the bomb's hypocenter.  The skeletal remains of this building, where all of the people inside were instantly vaporized, is the most recognizable symbol of Hiroshima and The Bomb.

"Practically all living things, human and animal, were literally seared to death"

-Japanese radio broadcast

-- The radius of complete and utter destruction was 1 mile

-- Fires covered close to 5 sq miles and ravaged the city

-- Almost 70% of the city's buildings were completely destroyed

-- 70,000-80,000 people, roughly 30% of the city's population, were killed**

**This was the worst statistic for me.  Most people are led to believe that the bomb instantly killed it's victims.  This is false.  Most people suffered for 2 or 3 days before succumbing to their injuries and the injuries were horrific.  The fireball that swept through the city burned some people alive, melted flesh, flash burned dyes from clothing into skin.  The photos were horrific and difficult to look at.  Because of the hypocenter's proximity to downtown, 90% of the city's doctors and nurses were killed instantly.  Of the 80,000 casualties, only 20,000 were soldiers, the rest were women, school children, the elderly, and Korean laborers.

Although the museum offered some harrowing tales and images of the victims, it's true mission is imagining a world without nuclear weapons.  Whenever a country carries out a nuclear test, Hiroshima's mayor writes a letter of protest to that country's head of state, pleading for disarmament.

-- This part was particularly embarrassing as the US dominated this section with 232 letters total, nearly 50 greater than the next highest total, Russia, (though only a handful of letters have gone to Russia since the Cold War ended, the US remains consistent).  

-- In one term, Obama's presidency has accumulated only one less letter than G.W. Bush did in two terms.

-- Only 4 countries received letters since the year 2000, USA (16), Russia (4), UK (2), DPRK (3).

-- Both Iraq and Iran have never received a letter of protest

The United States and Russia are the only two states with significantly large numbers of stockpiled nuclear weapons, (no doubt because of the Cold War).  

-- The US has approx 2150 active weapons

-- Russia has approx 1740 active weapons

-- No other country has more than 300 (France)

-- To this day, both Iraq and Iran have 0 active or inactive nuclear warheads

-- It's believed that Israel has approx 300, though they continually refuse to confirm or deny this

I realize that complete disarmament would require a very specific level of peaceful existence between nations; one that has probably never existed for as long as man has been civilized. But after viewing the atrocities of The Bomb, (which has evolved into an even more calculated machine of death and destruction), I hope we never witness those horrors again.