Hiroshima Atomic Bomb Dome

Wednesday was a very sad and thought provoking day for me because I spent it looking at the Atomic Bomb related sights in Hiroshima. This dome is world famous as one of the few buildings that survived the atomic bomb and was so iconic that they kept it as a memorial and a reminder of the terrible events of that day. I also found a bank which although less famous, was so undamaged that it is still used as a building to this day.

The museum itself is very interesting. There are countless stories of people who survived the blast only to die two or three days later from their burns and from radiation. The exhibits are very gruesome with clothes worn by people at the time which were mostly torn to shreds, singed and covered with blood and the remnants of bits of flesh. Each one that had been donated had the story to go with it. It is literally impossible to imagine the horror of walking miles out of a scorched city to find family in the suburbs with flesh hanging off your body. The display does a good job of trying to describe it though.

It is interesting to think that without the atomic bombs the war could have gone on a lot longer and it is doubtless that more people would have been killed but the sheer horror of what happened in Hiroshima makes it hard to believe that as sufficient justification. The scary thing is there are still plenty of countries with nuclear weapons still pointed at each other. It doesn't even bear thinking about.