Hiroshima at a Glance

By ALEX NJOVU


The Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki will forever be embedded in world history because of the tragedy of being destroyed by atomic bombs during World War II. Our staffer ALEX NJOVU reports on his recent visit to the city of Hiroshima. OVER 20 years ago my history teacher, Brighton Mulenga, spectacularly demonstrated how United States of American fighter-bombers reduced the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki to rubble with atomic bombs. He narrated how, at exactly 8:15 hours on August 6, 1945, the world's first atomic bomb used against human beings exploded over Hiroshima. The bomb, dropped by the B-29 Enola Gay, exploded 600 meters over Hiroshima with a blinding flash, creating a fireball that blazed like a small sun. Two weeks ago, echoes of Mr Mulenga's lesson came flashing back to my mind, as I flew into Hiroshima,which has since risen from the ruins to be a sprawling city. Memories of that bombing, however, are still fresh and indelible. I was with fellow African journalists from Botswana, Ethiopia and Malawi on a tour of Hiroshima, a city that attracts more than 20 million tourists yearly from all over the world. The explosion over Hiroshima killed hundreds of thousands of people. Those who survived suffered grievous mental and physical trauma, from which many still suffer to this day. The place to go for all visitors to Hiroshima is the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum. Built in 1955, to preserve and convey to future generations the facts about the unprecedented tragedy, it collects, stores and displays artefacts from the atomic bombing and other materials that speak of the tragic events of that fateful day. When visiting the memorial museum, however, African journalists become somewhat of a tourist attraction themselves, especially for children who had apparently never seen a black person in real life. The children politely requested to touch the hands of the journalists in order to have the feel of the black skin. They also asked, and got, autographs. The Peace Memorial Park, with the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum and Hiroshima National Peace Memorial Hall for the atomic bomb victims, was constructed as an appeal for lasting world peace and the abolition of nuclear weapons. The extensive park grounds are filled with monuments, including the cenotaph for the atomic bomb victims, the flame of peace, the children's peace monument and the fountain of prayer. Hiroshima has accomplished an amazing recovery since that bombing. Today, it is the largest, most vital city in the Chugoku-Shikoku region. With modern buildings lining Aioi-dori Avenue, elegant shops and restaurants in Motomachi and the outdoor café on the Motoyasu-gawa River, downtown. Hiroshima, with a population of 1.16 million people, is nestled between mountains and has picturesque rivers that are a sight to behold. About 900 kms from the capital Tokyo, it is less than two hours away by air and about 4 hours by the 'bullet train'. You drive from the Hiroshima Airport into this historic city over several waterways, rivers, and into the rolling mountains. Given the physical geography of this city, tunnels are intermittent as are bridges across hills and mountains. There are high-rise buildings but no extensive skyscrapers as in Tokyo. And like most cities in Japan, it is very clean. The transport system is efficient. The streetcar, or the tram, occupies a special place in the hearts of the residents. Hiroshima is the home of Mazda, or Matsuda as the local people's phonetics goes. The Mazda plant is at the seaport to get the cars ready for export. A new modern stadium dominates the skyline not far from the Mazda plant. Mazda has bought the naming rights at this stadium and it is appropriately called the Mazda Stadium. Many buildings in Hiroshima are very modern. There is no sign of ruined buildings as if the city never suffered such a devastating blow six decades ago. It is as if the local authorities, if not the country as a whole, wanted to forget the pain and anguish of war by replacing the ruins with elegant modern structures. This belief holds sway until one moves out of the built up areas into a huge tract of land with well manicured lawns and buildings set up in a single file. This is the Peace Memorial Park, the bank of the sum total of the tribulations and agony of the 1946 Hiroshima disaster. Radiation effects from the atomic bomb extended beyond the acute disorders that appeared immediately after the bombing. It caused various disorders for decades and continues to threaten the health of survivors today. Within one second of detonation, the fireball generated in the air grew to a diameter of 280 meters. It blazed for approximately 10 seconds. Heat rays emitted in all directions by this fireball exerted powerful effects at ground level. Temperatures in the hypocenter vicinity reached 3,000-4,000 degrees Celsius. The burns were only on the side directly facing the epicentre, but as far as 3.5 kms away people suffered burns on exposed skin. The surface of roof tiles within 600 meters of the hypo-centre melted and blistered. Out to 2kms clothing on bodies or drying on the line ignited. Approximately 2.5kms away, thatched roofs went up in flames. Many trees spontaneously ignited. Within 3 kilometres, electric poles, trees, and lumber were charred. A tour of the Hiroshima Museum is a journey into untold pain, misery and brutality of epic proportions. More than 19,000 items tell a story of how buildings were destroyed, how hundreds of thousands lost their lives in a slow painful death of radiation heat. "The precise number of those who perished is unknown. Hiroshima city estimated that by December 1945 in excess of 140,000 had died, but many more died thereafter due to radiation effects," tour guide Miho Mizutani said. Some people died a slow and painful death in weeks or months as they were exposed to fatal radiation dust and lost their arms, legs, hair, tongues and skin. A wall clock with an hour mark pointing to eight and the minutes pointer on three to remind everyone of the time when the bomb was detonated over a T-shaped bridge and next to a hospital is one of the first artefacts that confronts you as you enter the huge and beautiful museum. Miho Mizutani said the city was targeted because it was a major military outpost. "On that fateful day of the bomb attack Hiroshima's fate was sealed purely because the weather was good. The skies were good to allow for the American bomb 'experiment' to be carried out. The B-26 bomber was followed by another plane that was purely to photograph the resulting explosion in order to see the power of the atomic bomb," she said. It is ironic that the pictures in Hiroshima Museum were taken by the American military soon after they had detonated the bomb. Many people who see these pictures are deeply emotionally touched. So was I. One such picture is that of a junior high school student who was burned so severely that skin hung loose from his body. He was rescued and taken home by a friend. Unable to bear his thirst, he reportedly sucked the pus from the ends of his fingers, from which the nails had peeled off. He died in agony on the next day, August 7. His mother kept his fingernails and some of his skin as a remembrance to show his father. The one that got my eyes welling with tears was a burnt frame of a tricycle. It tells a story of a three-year-old boy who died while playing outside their house. Shinichi Tetsutani was exposed while riding his tricycle in front of his house and died the same day. Because Shinichi's father felt that lying to rest a three year old alone in a distant grave was too pitiful, he buried this tricycle in the backyard along with his son. In 1985, 40 years later, his bones were dug up and placed in a formal grave. The tricycle was donated to the Peace Memorial Museum." While on our tour, Japanese children also being taken around the museum, flashed the peace sign. World leaders come to visit the museum to sign messages of peace. Among previous visitors are President Bingu wa Mutharika of Malawi, South African former president F. W de Klerk, outspoken Bishop Desmond Tutu of South Africa. I joined the list with my own message condemning the use of weapons to settle disputes between nations and I hailed the Japanese for their forgiving hearts and for promoting peace in the world. The event is, however, one that cannot ever be forgotten as the Japanese went through lots of anguish before rebuilding their city. Simple clothing and everyday necessities were almost impossible to find. All faced hunger and runaway inflation. Those who had been exposed were also struggling with various disorders caused by the bomb. "During this period of confusion following the bombing, as all of Japan struggled through the tumultuous transition from surrender to life under occupation, the people of Hiroshima began to rebuild their lives. Nevertheless, on August 5, 1946, exactly one year after the bombing, the people comforted the souls of the dead and vowed to restore the city at a peace restoration festival. The magnitude of the task, however, was staggering," Ms Mizutani said. As I sat on the bullet train en route to Kyoto, Nagoya and back to Tokyo the images of World War II Hiroshima remained vivid and are bound to be so for many years to come, especially since I have been able to reconcile history with the first hand experience the visit gave me.