Nagasaki (Nagasaki Pref.; Kyushu Island)

9 Aug 1945: Nagasaki's day of infamy.

We visited the Nagasaki Atomic Bomb Museum. As with all such museums, enormously sobering. Unlike similar museums, it does not twist the story to lessen the local involvement in the situation. There were some very moving pieces in the museum; two that stood out to me: a clock stuck in time (found ~800m from hypocenter), & a picture of a wall that had a silhouette of a lookout & his ladder (~4.4km south of the hypocenter, a lookout was exposed to the flash after coming down from the roof; the tar exposed directly to the flash burned & disappeared, but that in the shadows remained. Although not mentioned, I'm assuming the lookout didn't make it). And there were countless photos of human casualties & personal testimonials from survivors that were just heart-wrenching.
We then went to the Peace Park: there's a 50th Anniversary Commemorative Monument, the Peace Statue, & a monument to the hypocenter area where the Bomb was dropped.
The Commemorative statue was designed by a Nagasaki-born artist.
Through 'the form of a child stricken in her mother's warm embrace', the child is like Japan on the day of the bombing, while the mother represents 'the support provided by the countries of the world in Japan's effort to build the peaceful nation it is today.'
The 50th Anniversary statue
The Peace Statue was erected on the 10th anniversary of the bombing and is poignant in its deliberate symbolism as a prayer that such a tragedy would never be repeated. The elevated right hand points to the threat of nuclear weapons; the outstretched left hand symbolizes tranquility & world peace. The folded right leg symbolizes quiet meditation; the left leg is poised for action in assisting humanity.
And on the 50th anniversary, the hypocenter area was designated an official 'prayer zone' to pray for the victims' eternal peace.

This was a heavy day.Read more