Hiroshima - 7 realisations

1. a horrific but amazing scientific experiment by the USA to capture the actual damage done with criteria developed for which city got hit first. 17 dummy drops were taken in various cities before Hiroshima got the honour. Reading committee meeting minutes of the discussions astounding in the thinking and debates behind the final decision.

2. the blast was so strong it whitened the stones. Shadows were permanently formed by thosethings in the way, including humans.

3. so many people died bc one plane was insufficient to sound the air raid sirens. one guy only 200m from the blast survived bc he was in a building basement. In Germany and Britain air raid sirens would send people underground making carpet bombing less casualty causing. nearly certain the US knew the impact would be greater this way.

4. dropping the bomb by parachute meant people came out to watch it fall.

5. dying from burns, having your eyes melt is really not a pretty death.

6. the Japanese invasion of China that lead to Pearl Harbour attack for oil to continue invasion for those who do not know their history :) killed 300,000. Pacific fighting around 2million, Hitler 6-10million, Stalin 25million. 200,000 died from one bomb. With this much death around I can understand the decision that the enemy dies, not your own people. I think it is the one bomb thing that gets to us (plus made the radiation sickness that follows). See 3 and 4 above for the real horror outcomes.

7. the fact that Hiroshima was first means that lots of tourists come to the city. Few people go to Nagasaki.

the ultimate question one asks when you are there is "would I have dropped the bomb". Lots of politics were involved, the Japanese were beaten but as demonstrated hardly ever surrended (rate of 1-120 dead vs allied 1-3 dead). it was dropped in Aug bc there was an agreement that Russia would declare war on Japan 3mths following victory in Europe. this would happen end-Aug. the bomb ended the war. Like my German friend Jan pointed out, the german loss was a good thing for the world. the japanese loss and A-bomb probably helped change an attitude to people (some of the stories to Allied prisoners is dwarfed by the horror inflicted on China) and value they place on human life.

Japan is the easist place I have ever travelled in and wonderful. the scary thing is how many bombs and how big they are which surround us. North Korea now has these weapons, making the world very much more fragile.