Jonas Salk, the man who developed the polio vaccine, once said “If all the insects on earth disappeared, within 50 years all life on earth would disappear. If all humans disappeared, within 50 years all species would flourish as never before.”
This quote came to mind when I walked the grounds of Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park today. The location of Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park was once the city’s busiest downtown commercial and residential district. The park was built on open field that was created by the explosion.
Before.
After.
Words fail me to describe the intense emotion I felt walking around a former lively neighborhood that transformed into Peace Memorial Park – a monument not only to memorialize the victims, but also to establish the memory of nuclear horrors and advocate world peace. I saw people openly weeping and crying. And I had problems holding back my own tears.
The Hall of Remembrance features a view of the bombed out city as seen from Shima Hospital, the hypocenter. The whole panorama is made of 140,000 tiles, the number of people estimated to have died by the end of 1945 because of the nuclear attack.
140,000 human beings. 140,000 missed opportunities. 140,000 voices we’ll never hear again. 140,000 souls we’ll miss forever. The museum streams their images, names and brief biographies 24/7. A reminder of what we lost.
I was extremely impressed by the honesty of the whole experience. Nobody was blamed. The whole attack was communicated as part of history, as a Japan of the past. I was especially pleased that they paid tribute to the 45,000 Korean victims with this Cenopath. The monument, beautified with Korean national symbols, is intended to honor Korean victims and survivors of the atomic bomb and Japanese colonialism.
Hiroshima’s Peace Memorial Park is less of a memorial to the dead and more of a memorial to the living. How can we ensure nuclear weapons will never be used again? How can we all work together to create world peace? There are three peace bells in the park. I rang this one, twice. Everyone is welcome to contribute to world peace.
The Children’s Peace Monument is a statue dedicated to the memory of the children who died as a result of the bombing. The statue is of a girl with outstretched arms with a folded paper crane rising above her. The statue is based on the true story of Sadako Sasaki, a young girl who died from radiation from the bomb. She believed that if she folded 1,000 paper cranes she would be cured. To this day, people (mostly children) from around the world fold cranes and send them to Hiroshima where they are placed near the statue.
More than anything, Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park is about world peace. It’s been 24,190 days since the attack and 212 days since the last nuclear test. When you walk around, you see flyers everywhere to eliminate the 20,000 nuclear bombs all over the world.
Hiroshima asks us to eliminate nuclear weapons by 2020. Join the cause.
This tricycle used to belong to a kid. A little kid with a future, with a gift to contribute to the world. We wasted this little life. Let’s make sure not to do it ever again. It’s the least we can do.
uwehook 
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