Nagasaki Friday, 2008

December 5, 2008 - Friday - Nagasaki

Just a couple pictures from Nagasaki today.

The heart of the Nagasaki’s downtown transportation system consists of old street trolleys. Some new, some antiques. They run frequently and are very simple to use – flat rate, pay 100 yen when you get off. They rattle and they are fun. But…

I took the trolley this morning to the part of town where the Atomic Bomb went off at 11:02 a.m. on August 9, 1945.



‘Hypocenter’ means below a specific point – synonymous with “ground zero”. The A-bomb went off above the ground over a point 240 meters to my left, when I took a picture of this sign. The bomb was 500 meters up when it exploded. The temperature at ground level instantly reached several thousand degrees Celsius – as if a little sun had suddenly blossomed just overhead.

At the Hypocenter Park today a series of concentric circles pinpoint the epicenter which is marked by a black obelisk ( which does look strangely like the one in 2001 a Space Odyssey). When the bomb went off - 73,000 people died instantly. The total would climb to 149,000.



I went to the Atom Bomb museum, just up the slope from the Hypocenter. In the first hall is a small simulation of the blast and then photographs of the total devastation This room was followed by exhibits about the physics of the explosion, the events leading up to August 9, a model of the bomb, how people tried to cope after the explosion, and recently recorded tales of survivors – including foreigners who were prisoners of war at the time. I listened to one account by an Australian prisoner who had been forced the work in the Mitsubishi steel plant. One of his mates saw the parachutes guiding the bomb down. Then he said there was a flash and he was blown around like a leaf.

There are lots of artifacts and various kinds of forensic evidence – melted roof tiles, globs of molten glass containing human bones, twisted pieces of steel, clay instantly baked into stone, stopped clocks, molten lunchboxes, burned clothing and photographs of burned people. There was an entire section on the science of radiation effects on the body.

Nagasaki was actually a secondary target, the primary target on the north shore of this island, Kyushu, was clouded over.

The museum was busy, but I was the only Westerner.

There was a whole series of videos about historical events leading up to the explosion all from the Japanese perspective. I thought it was different but fair, and certainly acknowledged the hegemony of fascism in Japan and the failure of the civilian government to control the armies aggression in Manchuria, which led to the war with China and the US led trade embargo, etc ….

The final exhibits were dedicated to illustrating the number of nuclear weapons in the world today and chronicling the anti-nuclear weapon protest movement.

Tomorrow – early train to Aso in the center of Kyushu. I hope it’s clear enough to get up the volcano! Today was stormy, cold rain and wind – a complete change from yesterday’s almost sultry warmth. I put a sweater on for the first time this trip tonight before walking to Chinatown for supper. It is Friday night. The Christmas music is playing, everyone is out shopping. All the girls are in high heeled knee high boots. It is like you can’t be a young woman here if you don’t have fancy knee high boots.

The other day Tokano-san and I were talking about Buddhism in Japan and he said it is different here, merged as it is with Shintoism, the traditional Japanese religion. Everything is all mixed up. They use different religious services at different times: christenings and weddings tend to be Shinto, funerals and New Years are Buddhist. They also celebrate Christmas. There are trees and decoration all over. Here’s one I photographed a few days ago in Kyoto.



Ho ho ho.