while i was at the museum at Hiroshima i bought a load of books including a small book on Sadako's story. even though it is a really simple book and only took me about 20 mins to read  it is really interesting (and very upsetting)

it is a really good short book though.

so if anyone wants to borrow it they're very welcome.

 

i've also learnt how to make paper cranes :]

 

i can talk about the plane journey home which included a load of turbulence.

so much so that kirsty ended up with a glass of water on her lap and some woman ended up with her tomato juice dripping from the ceiling.

so yeah that was fun.

although Japan was excellent having my own bed back felt pretty good, and the 13 and a bit hours sleep i had last night was pretty awesome too :]

i guess i'll be up all night tonight.

 

Just wanna say a massive thank you to all the TPYF team who put up with us. it was a really great experience and i absolutely loved it and am soo enthusiastic to carry on learning about what i saw and telling others about it too!

 

 

x

 

 

I thought this was a really great museum and i learnt an awful lot from it. At first i was reallly overwhelmed as all i saw was alot of information about Hiroshima before the war, but then something, an object in a glass case caught my eye, the object was a watch, the watch had stopped at exactly 8:15 the time at which the atomic bomb had gone off on the 6th of August. once seeing this it all suddenly began to seem real. Also behind the watch was a board with the words "A dragonfly flitted in front of me and stopped on a fence. i stood up, took my cap in my hands, and was about to catch the dragonfly when..."

   To me it seemed like the museum had been split into two parts. The first part seemed to be dedicated to the build up to the war and the bombing. The second section i found to be a lot more interesting, this section comprised of artifacts left by the victims, it also had the story of sadako and the paper cranes and how they became the symbol of peace. Seeing and reading things left by those who were bombed made the whole thing seeem so much more personal and i really learnt a lot.

 

 

This was totally different to what i was expecting and is hard to explain. First of all he was speaking in very general terms, he spent a lot of time telling us about the facts and figures of the bombs, such as how many people were in hiroshima, how many children in his school etc. Also he spoke in the third person quite alot. for example he told us that 8,700 children had survived but had no homes to go to, of these 8,700 children 6,000 were fostered and 700 were admitted to childrens homes in Miyajima, the 2,000 that were left were alone, he informed us that gangsters from the city would tell these children how to make a living. what he didnt tell us was that he was one of these orphans. He didnt really go into detail about what he did after the bomb or how he felt. but i guess that is the Japanese culture. 
   At the end of his talk he gave us a chance to ask some questions, it was only here that he expressed how he really felt. he also said that many of he japanese who survived are reluctant to share their stories as in order to survive they had to do things that were not human like. and that many Japanese are embarresed.

   This talk really contrasted from that we heard from Mr Rose and Mr Adi and even though it wasnt wat i was expecting it was really interesting.

 

 

Although this museum made me slightly angry it was a really great experience. The museum was extremely nationalist and contraversial. Once walking into the first room i realised just how nationalist it was as i read the quote "The painful livges of those who cared for their country piled up and up and up protecting the land of yamato".

   The next thing i noticed was how the Japanese tried to make themselves look like the victim in everything! for instance it described itself as a "small asian nation" 
   The wording in the whole museum also was very selective for example it said that "When Great Britain declared war on germany the whole of Europe was immediately drawn into a major conflict" The first thing this sentance fails to include is the reason why we declared war, which was because Germany went through Belgium. The next thing is that it states the whole of Europe was drawn in when it wasnt, the last thing is that it calls it a major conflict, when really it was a war.

   When it came to the part about World war two i got quite angry. walking round i  noticed that there was hardly any mention of Hitler and his involvement. it also states that we started the war. Another thing it failed to mention was Pearl Harbour. In the museum it stated that the reason the USA got involved in world war two was because of 'oil embargo'. It didnt give the actual reason which was because the Japanese navy on December 7th launched a surprise attack on the United states naval base at Pearl Harbour.

 

 

 

This cemetry is dedicated to those prisoners of war who died while doing labour in Japan. This cemetry is the only commonwealth cemetry in the country. There are 4 main sections (UK, Australian, indian and a combined new zealand and canadian section) in total there are 1,555 WW2 burials. seeing all the graves was really quite beautiful and also very emotional. In the UK section was a cross of sacrifice we all gathered infront of the cross and gave a minute silence to all of those who had died, after this a wreath of poppies was laid at the steps leading up to the cross. this was really quite moving and an experience which will stay with me for quite some time.

 

 

because some of my mobile blogs didnt work the last time i blogged properly was in kyoto. sooo i thought i would update everything.. :]

 

On wednesday we woke up extremely early and made our way to the hiroshima peace memorial ceremony. This ceremony happens every year on the 6th of August and has done since 1947, it is held to commemerate those who died/suffered due to the A bomb and to promote peace among all nations. the peace declaration is delivered every year by the mayor. The ceremony was a lot different to how i was imagining it to be. first of all i thought there would be a mention of Nagasaki but it seemed very much to be about the devastation of Hiroshima and only Hiroshima. Also i thought there maybe a speech given by a survivor of the bomb then again it is not Japanese culture to talk about what happened. The ceremony also seemed to be honest rather dull, all speeches given by the mayor sounded like he'd said them over a thousand times. I thought the ceremony would leave a great impression on me and really make me think an awful lot about devastating events such as the bomb etc but the ceremony did no such thing.

 

Possibly the most moving part of the whole trip. Down by the motoyasu river infront of the surviving A bomb dome thousands of people were there commemerating those who had died due to the atomic bomb. People write messages on the lanterns and then place them into the river, each lantern would represent a soul that had died from the attack. The Motoyasu river bears great significance to the hiroshima bombings as after the attack many people died there after trying to seek refuge in the water from the flames and heat. All the lanterns and the A bomb dome at night was so beautiful, seeing them really made me feel quite emotional and really got me thinking about the bomb and whether it was justified or not.