8.9.1945 11:02

So, I guess there comes a time in everyone's life when certain things come into perspective. Who am I? What is life? What is just? Other parts of the world can seem so distant, but occasionally we may have experiences that transgress both time and distance. Stephanie and I had such an experience today. On August 9, 1945, the city of Nagasaki, Japan was shaken by one of the most horrific events in modern history. The United States, in an effort to bring WWII 'to a close' decided to flex its' atomic muscle by dropping a 4.5 metric ton Atomic bomb on this peaceful coastal port. At 11:02 am most families were going about their daily routines when, without notice, a fiery inferno ensued. Within a period of 3 seconds, everything and everyone within a 1 kilometer radius perished. Radiation continued to disperse over the next 60 seconds, affecting everyone within a 3 - 4 kilometer radius. Worst of all, 70% of the victims were women, children and seniors. In the end, there were over 73,000 fatalities and nearly 75,000 injuries. While visiting the Nagasaki Atomic Bomb Museum we couldn't help but feel . . . . . . well, I honestly cannot even describe how I felt. Our day spent there definitely gave us a truly realistic (and suprisingly unbiased) perception of the days surrounding this infamous event.

This morning we traveled 90 minutes south of Sasebo by train to the coastal city of Nagasaki (current pop. 450,000). Immediately upon arrival we set out for the Atomic Bomb Museum and Memorial Peace Park, a 10 minute streetcar ride north of Nagasaki Train Station. As we approached the museum we really had no idea what to expect. . . where they going to simply show us a few artifacts and tell us what we already knew? In the end, what we experienced was one of the most eye-opening days of our lives. The first exhibit displayed a wall clock, found 1km from the hypocenter (spot where the bomb was dropped), which ceased to operate at exactly 11:02am.

This image of a clock frozen in time somehow communicated a new meaning of how precious time is. The museum itself is divided into three main portions: 1) Nagasaki before the bombing, 2) Damage caused by the A-bomb, and 3) Moving forward toward a world free of nuclear weapons.

The first section displayed a number of photographs of Nagasaki prior to the bombing. . . the cityscape, countryside, and everyday activities.
The second portion first laid out the events leading up to the decision by the US to bomb Nagasaki. We learned that atomic research and development in the US was originally intended to combat Hitler's Nazi Germany. However, our government later decided to shift targets from Germany to Japan. One especially poignate fact was this: at an early conference, the US agreed on 17 potential A-bomb targets in Japan. . . one of which was Sasebo! Oh my god! We may only have been living in Sasebo for one month, but the feeling that came over me when I read that my current home could have been chosen as THE target was completely inexplicable. It's easy for us to distance ourselves from many events that taken place around the world, but this fact alone completely put things into perspective for me. The remainder of this portion of the museum focused on artifacts found in the days following the bombing and the stories of some victims and survivors. Although there is no way to verbally recreate the power of seeing such artifacts, I will give you a few examples (we were not allowed to take pictures):
*ceramic roof tiles with bubbled surfaces, the result of temperatures over 1,600 degrees celcius
*bones from a human hand fused into a block of cement due to the "ferocious heat"
*rosaries found at the previous site of Urikami Catholic Church (once the largest in Asia). The glass beads of the rosary had melted into a giant mass
*a helmet found near the hypocenter containing remnants of a human skull
*a collection of melted, mangled and discolored coins and stones

The final section of the museum was focused on nuclear activity from past WWII to present day. One interesting exhibit was centered around a group of American politicians and scholars who (prior to the bombing) demanded that the US need not use nuclear weapons on Japan. This included Dwight Eisenhower and Alberet Einstein. Another exhibit introduced the creation of the Hydrogen Bomb in 1953 (H-Bomb). Although an H-bomb has never been used in war, tests have been done by both the US and the former Soviet Union. One fact I found completely unbelievable is that the modern Hydrogen Bomb is 250 times more devastating than the Atomic Bomb dropped on Nagasaki. This means that a single H-bomb has the ability to wipe out the entire state of Florida within 60 seconds. If you weren't previously against weapons of mass destruction, I bet you are now!

After leaving the Atomic Bomb Museum, Steph and I made our way over to the Peace Park. We first came across the statue of a woman holding a child, which was inscribed with the '1945 8.9 11:02'. This statue was placed in the park in 1997, just after the 50th anniversary of the bombing.

Next we came upon a group of stones arranged in a series of circles around a large black monolith. This monolith stands at the 'Hypocenter' (point of detonation) of the bomb. A number of flowers, strands of origami, and gifts decorated the facade.

After a final decent to the top of a hill in the park we came across a resounding image: The Statue of Peace Prayer. This enormous 30-foot tall statue represents the hope of the people of Nagasaki, a nuclear-free future. One hand is pointing up (at the A-bomb) and the other hand is pointing toward the future. After an emotionally draining day, we made our way back to the streetcar stop.



We were completely overwhelmed in knowing that, as we returned to the train station, all of the cityblocks we traveled across were once in complete ruin. Although newly rebuilt and modernized, the city is marked with many memorials and remnants of the day they will never forget.

*Note: For more pictures of our Nagasaki A-bomb tour, click on our Yahoo!Photos link
**Note: 3 days prior to dropping the A-bomb on urban Nagasaki, the US detonated an A-bomb over the port city of Hiroshima killing an estimated 160,000 (August 6, 1945).