A Visit to Hiroshima

Well, I finally made to Hiroshima – better late than never, I suppose. By which I mean all of eight minutes late, thanks to a short mystery delay on the shinkansen. I know, I was a little bit put out here myself – to the point I even took a photo as evidence (five minutes in) that even the stereotypically punctual and punctilious Japanese are not always quite as on the dot as they’d ideally like to be. Though in fairness, they did spend the rest of the journey putting out various self-flagellating announcements to this effect, apologising both profusely and repeatedly (at intervals of every 15 minutes) for any inconvenience caused.

Hiroshima (pronounced here as Hir-oh–shee-ma rather than the UK Hir-ohsh-ima) is of course primarily known for one thing – which is being blasted to hell on 6th August 1945 by the world’s first “officially” detonated nuclear bomb. As I’m sure you’re all well aware, it was on this date that the bomb Little Boy – as dropped by pilots of the Enola Gay B-29 bomber – effectively razed the city of Hiroshima to the ground in an instant, killing up to around 200,000 people (mainly civilians) in the process, both in the immediate blast and through the effects of radiation sickness in the short- and longer-term aftermath.

I spent my first afternoon mainly walking round the Peace Memorial Park, which (as the name implies) features a number of monuments and memorials to the victims of the bombing – including the Peace Museum itself and also that now iconic bombed-out building most people associate with the city (officially known as the A-Bomb Dome).

I sensibly decided to tackle the Peace Museum itself the next day, figuring that I’d need a fair chunk of mental energy in reserve for this one – which turned out to be a very good call. As a bit of a 20th century history buff, with something of a – shall we say – ‘specialist interest’ in nuclear warfare / annihilation (they are in effect synonymous) at the best of times (‘Threads’ anyone…?!?), I already knew quite a bit about the Hiroshima bombing at an intellectual level, but fair to say the museum here certainly hammered it home at an emotional one. I mean, fuck me, there really are no words at times…

Arrgghhh. The best you can say for it all really is that The Bomb has kept the peace (just about…) for 78 years now – but at what cost…? And – more pertinently – for how much longer…? All I can say is that if the bomb drops in my near vicinity, I’m stripping naked and running towards it as bloody fast as I can. Failing that, my stock of iodine tablets and tinned goods should help me survive – hmm – a good month or so more after everyone else has either died or society had broken down irrevocably. So, there’s that, I suppose…

Anyway, this is all getting horribly dark and depressing – so let’s switch the tone up a little bit here.

For example, is it wrong of me to say Hiroshima – in particular Memorial Square – puts me really quite strongly in mind of Milton Keynes here….? It’s all that concrete, wide open space and new town / urban planning feel, I think, plus lots of underpasses (albeit not the excess roundabouts) too. Key difference being that Milton Keynes – unlike Hiroshima – has no excuse… (That’s a joke btw! And I’m just playing MK, you know I love you…. 😉 ).

Also, I was being a little unfair earlier in saying that Hiroshima is only known for once having had the shit nuked out of it. The Mazda factory is also based here, apparently, and the city is also known for its okonomiyaki, which are basically a type of savoury Japanese half-omelette, half-pancake dish. It’s so popular here that there is one part of town set aside as an Okonomiyaki Village, called the Okonomimura, which I visited as well today (that’s my okonomiyaki below bottom left by the way – it was pretty nice!):

And finally, I don’t want to end this entry while still on a downer, so here some vids and pics of me at a Micropig Café to help lift the mood (it was a genuine Sophie’s Choice between that and the neighbouring Puppy Café, but I’m at peace with my decision here).