No Peace at Peace Memorial Park

2011年03月20日

広島 Hiroshima

I'm seated an eating my fries with an NWA attitude. This chick managed to get under my skin and we havnt even met up yet. After I finish my fries I was going to call back one last time since now I had change for the phone but finally she gives me a ring. Her bitchiness is on the other line asking where I am. I ask a couple of teenagers seated near me the same question in Japanese. They respond in English and I let the Bitch on the other line know that I am at the South gate. She tells me stay there and that they will come find me. Good, cause I wasn't moving til these fries were devoured (# `^’)

Ayako and Okaasan show up 5 minutes later. As soon as I saw Okaasan, my anger toward Ayako turned into anger towards myself. It was her only day off and us meeting up must have been a headache for her. I wish I had put minutes on my phone yesterday. That would have made things much easier. I didn't say much to Ayako except "hey". I would have preferred her presence not being present. Not that it ever really is anyway (・・?) We head out to an exit that I had seen before. Oh it's a trolley (￣^￣) and a taxi stand at the corner.

It had begun to pour heavily. Times like these I wish I had my ninja umbrella (*^◯^*) we hopped in the cab with Ayako being in the passenger seat and I was in the back with Okaasan. Thank Fujisan for that arrangement. As we drive through the wet streets of Hiroshima, I can just feel this negative chi in the cab. It was like a dark cloud sitting in the front passenger seat and I know the driver felt it as well. Fuck it! This is Okaasan & I time and I'm not letting Ayako ruin that.

I decided to open up small talk with Okaasan cause she was unusually very quiet as well. We chatted until we reached our destination "Peace Memorial Park". This is it, where the first nuclear bomb "Little Boy" was dropped. This was the reason why I wanted to visit Hiroshima. The park of the museum was beautiful even in the downpour of the rain. It almost gave it a nuclear fall out kind if feel but with a splash of life.

When we got inside, we were immediately surrounded by video displays, photographs, artifacts from the war, display models of Hiroshima before and after the bomb, and also audio narrations. The place was full of tourist from around the world, which was really fitting because this was truly an international museum. It had information on nuclear war in many languages. One of the most interesting aspects of the museum was that the photos and information about the history of Hiroshima city were on displays that walked us through what felt like a time capsule.

The three of us split ways, I took a snails pace to keep as far from Ayako as possible. Reading along I learned that Hiroshima was one of 4 or 5 cities that was targeted as a location to drop the Nuke. A change of location and we would be somewhere else today. The majority of the photographs showed a flatten landscape, while videos played images of the Enola Gay. As I was finishing up my tour through the first exhibit I saw this huge panel that displayed a photograph of Japanese people who were burned from the explosion. At the bottom right there was a quote from the photographer himself:

Immediately after the Bombing

11 a.m. August 6, 1945

“I fought with myself for 30 minutes before I could take the first picture. After taking the first I grew strangely calm and wanted to get closer, I took about ten steps forward and tried to snap another, but the scenes I saw were so gruesome my viewfinder clouded with tears.”

The Viewfinder Clouded with Tears

-Yoshita Matsushige

As soon as I read these words, my eyes immediately began to water up. I moved on seeing that Okaasan was waiting for me to get to the next exhibit. As I walked up the stairs thinking about what I just witnessed, I found myself along Ayako side. Feeling her negative chi, I wanted to say something to cheer her up. I then thought about the tsunami victims and how recent events have been nearly as devastating as 1945. The only words I could possibly say to her were “thousands are dead, missing, and homeless, WTF do you have to bitch about!?” I could never be a therapist…

\

The next exhibit was interesting from the fact that the artifacts there were pieces of architecture that survived the blast. Seeing the dome of a building inside the museum blew me away. When I went over to it I realized it was structured right over the first exhibit I had just walked through. There was a symbolism to this structure that was so beautiful. It had survived the most destructive weapon known to man and was still standing. It was a symbol of the Japanese people. They’re much stronger than the world perceives them to be. Amazed by this building I wanted a photograph of Okaasan and I in front of it (I had yet to take a photo with her). I approached her about us taken a photo together and she said sure, but wanted Ayako in the photo also. DAMMIT! Ayako refused. Fucking sweet (^^) but Okaasan gave her my camera to take the photo (-_-) snap shot…thanks for the shitty photo bitch. I felt like grabbing another person to retake the photo of us and make up for the blurry shot that barely grabbed the dome. Okaasan asked me if the picture was fine. To keep the harmony, I told her it was ok.

We continued along the path and walked through replicas of tarnished brick walls and manikins replicating scenes of survivors. The model that popped my eyes out like an anime character was seeing “Little Boy”. It was weird how I observed it as if it were the real deal that wiped out the ground I am now walking on. For anyone who doesn't realize the threat of a nuclear holocaust, need only take a stroll through Peace Memorial Park. Throughout my tour I entered an exhibit displaying the clothing of children who died in the aftermath of the explosion. The clothing had been arranged as if the ghost of a Hiroshima child had been standing in place wearing it. There were notes with back-stories for each piece of attire for visitors to read. Every single one I read was about a child between the ages of 3 to 16 that had died from their burns and how helpless the families who tried to save them felt.

The most shocking image, however, was a block of stone that was taken from the disaster and placed in the museum. Apparently thousands of Japanese had disappeared without a deceased body for the families to claim. When this was the case, families were told that there loved ones were most likely directly exposed to the nuclear blast and incinerated. Examining the stone closely, I could see a shadow cast upon it that made the shape of a person who was directly a victim of the nuke. Nuclear war is my greatest fear. Horrified, I continued viewing the possession of victims who had died from radiation, burns, and other complications.

I hope that something as devastating as this never happens again. I recall many people’s fears after 9/11 and those were planes that needed to be hijacked so it they can crash into a building. Its not a subject that brought up a lot because the Cold War is over, but imagine a nation that has its own planes to fly, dropping a weapon that would wipe out Manhattan O.O Its scary to know there are 20,000 nukes in the world today and it only takes one to flatten a city like Hiroshima. I must make plans to visit Nagasaki, the second city to fall victim to nuclear warfare.

When I reached the end of the tour, I had apparently gone way ahead of Okaasan and Ayako. I waited by the window, viewing tourist walk along the gardens of Peace Memorial Park in heavy rain. I wanted to explore more but when Okaasan showed up, she was feeling tired and hungry, and wanted to get a meal before heading back to Fukuoka. I wanted to stay but I understood how she must feel. The woman works 12 hour shifts 6 days a week and traveling to Hiroshima back in forth in one day must be exhausting (which I will soon learn, foreshadowing dun dun duuuuuuuuun)

We caught a cab and headed to an okonomiyaki spot (^^) during the cab ride I let Okaasan know about my experience in Osaka, of course keeping the fight out of the narration. My hat once again hid all my bruises and scars, and my hand was not as swollen as yesterday so no one could tell the difference. If asked about it, I would give them the same BS story I told Rie when she noticed the hand “I punched a wall because I was mad.” When we hit the spot, it was one of those in the cut restaurants that had a menu outside and a guy promoting it under an umbrella.

We got in the elevator and went to some floor. It ended up being a really small place that was set up with counters around the chef and the panned surface where he cooked Hiroshima style okonomiyaki. The coolness about this place was that it was actually a very popular restaurant. All around the walls, there were the signatures of celebrities. I was expecting a bomb meal after seeing all this and I was not disappointed. It would have been all good, I mean I just had a special delicacy cooked before my eyes and was hanging with a beautiful spirit, but unfortunately some of us don't know how to take charge of our own happiness.

I was seated in between Okaasan and Ayako. As I ate I could feel Ayako’s bitchiness giving me sunburn. Man, I had a bottle cracked over my head and am still keeping it 元気. I could have been a snobby tourist bitching about a disaster ruining my trip to Tokyo but instead I made the best of it. Japan is in a crisis but I still feel the kindness of strangers. Heaven knows people are suffering from radiation yet something tells me they’re not as depressing as the person sitting next me. The verdict was out: she is just one miserable bitch! I haven’t spent time with someone so depressing since I got divorced from my ex-wife. My original plan was to spend one day in Hiroshima and then return to Fukuoka for a day but now I’ve decided to stay another and make a back and forth trip tomorrow morning to get all my shit back so I can be done with her.

I killed my meal and helped Okaasan with her leftovers. Dam that was good, but not good enough to remove the bitter taste I had from spending time with Ayako. We caught a cab back to Hiroshima station and parted ways. I gave Okaasan a big hug and peace the fuck out to Ayako. Its time to check in.

When God created human beings
I bet he didnt think of bombs and things
I bet he wonders why
Just like I never imagined it would be anything between you and me
I know cause I cry
I cry

You were my sunrays
Without you girl there was no days
Never dreamt to speak the phrase
But what the fuck just happened

- N*E*R*D 

Lets Keep it 元気 and share a happy time photo

 

Rie and I in Osaka with the city's maskot