An Air of Solemnity

Sarah Emmons '17
Mar 18, 2017
5 min read

At Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park and Kokutaiji High School

This was a day that we had all been part dreading and part looking forward to. It was the day where we were going to visit the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum and then meet our host families. All tolled it looked to be an emotional roller coaster of a day. After we ate breakfast together and went over etiquette, for both the museum and the home stay, one last time, we set out to walk to the peace museum. When we arrived we had a few minutes before our presentation so we got to look around at an exhibit that had just opened with personal artifacts the survived the bombing. At first glance it looked like any other display that we had seen on the trip. There were the objects in their glass cases and a plaque with a description in both Japanese and English. Everything changed once you read those plaques however. The stories they contained removed all traces of the lighthearted joking atmosphere that had been surrounding us from day one and replaced it with an air of solemnity. Even the most jovial out of us knew that this was no longer the time for jokes or silly questions, we were faced with countless stories of children who died in the arms of their parents or worse died feeling completely alone. Often the plaques told stories of artifacts that were the only way parents and family members were able to recognize their loved ones after the devastation of the bomb. As we read the stories we were faced with the horrible reality that I think most of us are able to escape in favor of an easier life: all the many people who were killed were not just a statistic another number among thousands, but these people were just like us, they all had stories and families and people who loved them and searched for them and mourned them. I think this is something that when we read about tragedy in history class we refuse confront because it is easier to just look at the numbers and forget what they stand for.

After this sobering experience we then went in to hear a survivor of the bomb tell us his story. As he talked a silence fell over the room. We heard about the few small changes made to his day that allowed him to survive and we realized how indiscriminate the death was. From his school his entire class of second graders survived because the school decided they would work in the fields that day while the entire class of first graders was killed because it was their day to work in the city. We learned that because of the program that had students assisting with demolishing building in the city many of the deaths were children, in fact around 77% of the children working in the city were killed by the bomb. After telling us his story of surviving the bombing and what he found in the city afterwards he brought us back to the story of class of first graders that had been killed. He told us that instead of all being killed instantly as he had first assumed he found out years later that many did not die instantly, instead they lived for, in some cases, hours after the bombing. Some tried to reach the water, others called out for help, and still others attempted to crawl home to their families. He told us that many died in pain and crying out for water that they were not allowed to have. Again and again we were reminded that these were not just numbers but people who suffered unimaginable pain all because of this one act of a war that many had fled to Hiroshima to escape.

After the survivor’s story we thanked him profusely and we all had to take a moment to collect ourselves after the experience. We then got to go into the actual museum itself. As we walked through we were first greeted with pictures of the massive mushroom cloud created by the bomb. Then there were more artifacts and stories about those that were killed and the ones they left behind. We then viewed the Flame of Peace and rang the Peace Bell, both are symbols reminding us to look to the future with our new view of the past and promise, that if we ever have the choice, to never commit another atrocity like this. We also got to visit the Children’s Monument and see the tribute to Sadako Sasaki (the girl who died of Leukemia when she was 12 due to after effects of the bomb and attempted to make 1000 paper cranes before she died in the hope that she would be cured) and also some of the millions of cranes that people have sent in from all over the world. This was especially meaningful for me because ever since I read a book about her in third grade I had wanted to see this monument and pay a tribute to her. Finally on our way out of the Peace Park we walked past the Atomic Bomb Dome, the building that was right under where the bomb detonated and has been preserved for all these years.

Once we were done with that part of the day all our thoughts turned towards meeting our host families. This was something that we had all been nervous about since day one, but also many of us had been looking forward to it as well. Once we arrived at Kokutaiji High School we finally got to meet our host brothers and sisters. They lead us around the school and we got to participate in several clubs. We got to play table tennis and badminton (some were much better at this than others). We got to do some calligraphy, they showed us how to write some of the things that we liked (if you looked around the room you saw words ranging from pizza and dogs to money and love). The final club we got to visit was the English Club. We sat in groups and the Japanese students told us about themselves in English and those of us who are in Japanese class told them about ourselves in Japanese. Finally we all gathered our things and parted ways for the first time in 8 days and headed home with our various host families.

The Atomic bomb surviver.