Final Time in Japan: Hiroshima and Miyajima and on to South Korea

On Tuesday afternoon (June 19, we arrived in Hiroshima after another pleasant ride on a shinkansen.  We left the station and immediately boarded the very convenient tram and rode it to within a block and a half of our last hotel in Japan (the ANA Crowne Hiroshima).  This hotel is just as lovely as the one in Kyoto but, fortunately, much less expensive.  Also, it is only two blocks away from Hiroshima’s Peace Memorial Park.

The Peace Memorial Museum was our first stop.  We decided to watch a 30-minute film, mostly made up of photographs and film clips of victims and the destruction of the center of Hiroshima by the atomic bomb dropped by the Enola Gay on August 6, 1945.  The 30-minute film, called “A Mother’s Prayer,” included graphic depictions of burns and wounds being treated with limited medical supplies.  Needless to say, it was very moving.

The exhibitions in the museum begin with descriptions and accompanying photographs and documents explaining how Hiroshima had developed by the time of World War II, after earlier wars Japan fought against China and Russia, into a major military production and mobilization center.  In fact, at one point, the Emperor and the government moved to Hiroshima when Tokyo was suffering from intense bombing, so it seems that Hiroshima was the second most important city in terms of leadership and strategic headquarters.

After explaining how people in Hiroshima, including junior high students and people conscripted from Korea and other occupied areas, were employed in helping the war effort, the exhibition highlighted the attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on December 7, 1941, clearly showing how Japan was initially the aggressor.  Next, the museum featured information on the Manhattan Project in the United States.  With copies of declassified documents, it explained how the United States made its decision to drop the atomic bomb and how the target was chosen.  A letter from President Roosevelt discussed the need to use the atomic bomb to justify the two million dollars that had been spent on the project.  Also, the U.S., Great Britain and Russia had signed an agreement secretly stating the Russia would enter the war against Japan by early August if Japan had not yet surrendered.  Japan refused to accept the Potsdam Treaty calling for surrender in the summer of 1945.  The United States did not want Russia to become involved in the war against Japan because Roosevelt’s government wanted to limit the power that might be wielded by Russia after the war ended.  Therefore, there was a clear foreign policy objective to end the war quickly at this point. 

A few days before the 6^th of August, the final order was given to drop the atomic bomb.  The target cities had been narrowed down to four, and Hiroshima was finally selected because of its military-industrial complex and the fact that no American prisoners of war were located in the city.  The weather on the morning of August 6 was hot and the skies were clear, and the decision was made to launch the attack.  As three American planes headed north to Japan, in Hiroshima, the all-clear signal sounded telling the citizens that it was safe to go out and about.  At 8:15, the hands of clocks and watches froze as the blast stopped time.

Artifacts and burned and shredded clothing worn by victims was displayed. Black shadows of persons were imprinted on sidewalks and buildings indicating where people had simply vaporized from the intense heat.  More horrifying were the photos taken that day and for days after of victims with skin and tissue dripping like candle wax from their fingers and arms, parts of their faces missing, and burns all over their bodies.  These were the initial survivors.  Many died immediately. At least 100,000 people lost their lives that very day.  Among the survivors, tens of thousands of these died from their wounds and radiation within only a few months. As the months and years passed and the city began to rebuild, thousands of others became victims of radiation sickness and leukemia, for which there was no treatment available, and inevitably died.  Babies in utero on August 6 grew up with mental and physical handicaps. 

I have been to the remains of the concentration camps in Western Europe and the Holocaust Museum in Washington, D.C.   While the Nazi treatment of the Jews is almost too horrible to comprehend--and I do not diminish in any way the suffering of those who were persecuted, placed in ghettos and sent to death camps--the immediate and long-term effects of this single momentary attack on similarly innocent people as graphically depicted at the Peace Memorial Museum was totally gruesome and horrific. 

The last part of the museum illustrated the development of nuclear weapons since World War II and highlighted how the people of Hiroshima have assertively worked for complete nuclear disarmament since 1945.  On August 6 of every year a memorial service is held.  Every time a nuclear test in conducted, the mayor of Hiroshima, on behalf of the citizens, writes a letter of protest to the leader of the country that made the test.  Hundreds of these letters, cast in bronze, are on display.  The last one was written to President Obama earlier this year. 

Peace Memorial Cenotaph, Peace Flame and A-Bomb Dome

Katya and the bell in Peace Memorial Park

We slowly and solemnly exited the museum at closing time.  I felt I had not had enough time to absorb the magnitude of the event and its repercussions.  We walked through the park, stopping at the Memorial Cenotaph, the Children’s Memorial and the A-Bomb Dome—the remains of an industrial exhibition hall that were left standing as a reminder of that tragic day in history.

Katie and Katya at Hondori Shopping Center

Leaving the park, we wondered through the colorful, cheerful and lively Hondori shopping area, filled with people mingling and shopping after work and school.  We found both Tokyo and Kyoto architecturally boring; with few exceptions, such as Kyoto Station, the buildings consist of monotonous rectangular shapes in a constricted palette mostly of slate gray, muddy ochre and dull sienna with an occasional white edifice.  Bright colors in the rainbow spectrum are nowhere to be found.  The older wooden buildings, with their patterned facades are more appealing, and the temples and particularly the brightly lacquered shrines stand out among the modern cityscape, ornate and colorful, with eaves lifting up to the sky.  Hiroshima (maybe because there was sunshine) is much more interesting visually.  While there are the usual glass, steel and concrete structures, interesting cornices, curved lines and exterior ornamentation are also present.

We bought boxed dinners at a convenience store and ate them on a park bench along the Peace Promenade, on which our hotel is situated.

O-torii at Mirajima

We got a bit of a late start on Wednesday morning, but we checked out and the hotel accepted our luggage for storage.  We took a tram, a train and a ferry to reach the beautiful island of Miyajima.  The emerald hills gleamed in the sunshine, and the O-torii near the shore, reflected in the water, stood out in stark contrast to the lush greenery.  The tide was just beginning to ebb, so the O-torii rose up from the water rather than low-tide sand flats. 

From the ferry dock, we walked along a promenade to reach Itsukushima Shrine, built in the Shinden style of architecture.  Like the O-torii, they are built right on the shore.  The sea laps gently under the structures when the tide is in.  The buildings are connected with covered wooden walkways and painted in vermillion, green and white.  I observed a ceremony in the main shrine for the blessing of a new child.

Ceremony for the blessing of a new child

Guardian at the gate

We left the shrine and walked through narrow and picturesque streets up to the Daishon-in (temple).  This place is just unbelievably gorgeous, nestled in a verdant valley alongside the waterfalls and cascades of a clear mountain stream.  We passed under the Niomon gate, flanked on each side by a guardian to ward off evil spirits.  The long stone stairway up to the next gate has a handrail running down the center with golden replicas of the volumes of the Dai-hannyakyo sutra mounted beneath.

As visitors pass by, they can run their hands along the revolving sutras, bringing good fortune.  Looking down at a winding path through the moss-covered ground and trees off to the left as the slope descends to the ravine, we could see some of the 500 Rakan statues representing disciples of Shaka Nyorai.  Each has a unique facial expression.  The belfry with its bronze bell used to announce the beginning of services is off to the left as the stairway approaches Onarimon gate to the temple complex.

I proceeded straight ahead a structure containing a large statue of Namikiri Fudo Myo-o, a destroyer of evil, wielding his sword as well as 1000 small statues of his his image donated as tributes.  Wheels of scripture also lined the steps to the next structure, inviting blessings for those who spin them as they ascend. 

Prayer room at the top of Maniden Hall

Maniden Hall is the main prayer hall, found at the top of these steps.  A monk was providing instruction or guidance, it seemed, to a few people on the main level, but a side stairway led up to a prayer room at the next level.  This offered views of other temple structures and the sea in the near distance. 

Back outside and along the path to the next building were various statues, including a large one representing Aizen Myo-o, who saves people from worldly desires.   

The next building, Daishi-do Hall, enshrines Kobo Daishi, the founder of the Shingon sect of Buddhism.  Beneath it is Henjyokutsu Cave, a large, dimly lit cavern containing icons of the 88 temples of the pilgrimage route on Shikoku.  With golden lanterns providing a low level of illumination, the statues shimmer in their rows and the decorated blue walls of the cave contrast with golden glow.  

Henjyokutsu Cave

Gilded statue of Shaka Buddha entering nirvana

 The Seven Dieties of Good Fortune are enshrined in the smaller, octagonal hall down another flight of steps from Daishi-do Hall.  The only image I have seen of a reclining Buddha in Japan was at this complex.  The blue-haired, gilded statue represents Shaka Buddha entering nirvana. 

Five-story pagoda in Miyajima

Going to and coming down from Daisho-in, we passed the beautiful five-story pagoda, vibrant red against a brilliant blue sky.  We strolled through streets covered in awnings for shade; various food and souvenirs were displayed in this open-air marketplace.  Katie bought a quick treat (and shared) as we made our way back to the ferry.  We just missed a ferry and had to wait 15 minutes for the next one.  We had a 15-minute wait for the train north, so we bought ice cream.  Katie and I tried the green tea flavor, which was refreshing and not too sweet.  Katya was conservative in her choice, chocolate-vanilla swirl.  At the transfer from the train to the tram, we just missed by seconds the tram to the hotel, so we had to wait 12 minutes at that station.  Although we probably would have made it to Hiroshima JR Station in time on the tram for our 2:15 train to Shin-Osaka to make the connection to Kansai Airport, our luck with just missing mass transit impelled us to take a taxi, which was a bit more expensive, but we needed to use our yen anyway before leaving Japan in a few hours. 

Katie and Katya with a deer on Miyajima

The rest of the trip by train was uneventful as we passed through urban areas and the countryside with its rice patties in which the young rice stalks had just been planted a few weeks before.  After checking our bags and getting our boarding passes for our flight to Seoul, we had over an hour to kill.  Unfortunately, there were few souvenir shops, and the ones we found had high prices.  We also wanted to buy a last cream soda (melon soda with ice cream, like a root beer float), but we were unwilling to splurge 800 yen (about $10) a piece for them.  Katie exchanged her two 1000 yen bills for Korean currency, and we spent my last 1000 yen and our combined coins on cold drinks from Starbucks and a cookie.

We arrived in Seoul about 9:30 on Wednesday evening.  My friend Lori Shoemaker met us at the airport, and it was easier than we had anticipated to fit ourselves and our luggage into her car.   The ride to her home in the embassy housing section of the U.S. Army Base passed along the wide Han River and the we had lovely views on the skyscrapers and the illuminated bridges spanning the waterway.  Her two children, Michael and Elizabeth, were asleep when we arrived, but we were quiet and sat around in the living room discussing our plans for the next couple days as well as a bit about Korean culture and language.

We are now comfortably settled for a few days in Lori’s spacious and lovely home, decorated with family photos, children’s artwork and school projects, and wonderful art pieces she has collected in South Korea, Guinea and Japan during previous tours.   We are all looking forward to the next couple days of experiencing South Korea and spending time together.  And, clean clothes are in short supply at this point, so the chance to do laundry has been greatly anticipated!  -- Sherri