"We must find a way to make our mutual pain a positive gift for the future"

One event has become so synonymous with Hiroshima that it can be hard to think of the place as anything else: the dropping of the first atomic bomb at the end of World War II. I went to Hiroshima partly to learn more about the bomb and what happened after - and what I found was fascinating. The city, as exemplified in the quote that is the subject of this post, has confronted that experience with a tremendous amount of grace and responded with the most forward-thinking outlook I could imagine.

The city has converted a large swath of land on a main island near the hypocenter of the explosion into a beautiful Peace Memorial Park. Around this park, several landmarks and monuments are presented. There is the A-Bomb Dome, a Czech-designed local products exhibition hall very close to the explosion that was hollowed out yet its frame and recognizable dome remained.

There is the Children's Peace Monument, a monument created by schoolchildren all across Japan. It remembers the story of a local 12 year old girl who died from leukemia contracted as a result of radiation exposure. After she was diagnosed, she pledged to fold 1,000 paper cranes to bring good luck to her and to forestall her death. The monument is in the shape of these cranes and many are received to this day from classrooms around the world.

There is a cenotaph and an Eternal Flame of Peace that remember those killed in the bombing. The Flame will not be extinguished until nuclear weapons no longer exist on the planet.

Most interesting was the Peace Memorial Museum. The exhibition presents Hiroshima before the war, the war itself, the day of the bombing, and the aftermath. Anyone who has been to the Holocaust Museum in DC knows what an overwhelming experience such a presentation can be. The parts that particularly fascinated me were the explanations of the "why" of the bombing and the city's long-term response.

The museum demonstrated incredible balance in its interpretation of the cuases of the war and of the bombing. Several times, it went into detail about Japanese aggression in the 30s and 40s. It also mentioned forced Korean and Chinese laborers in Hiroshima who were killed by the bomb several times.

The city has also adopted a forward thinking stance of peace promotion. The Mayor of Hiroshima sends a protest letter to the head of state each time a nuclear test is conducted. In addition, there was a peace clock that counted the days since the bombing and the days since the last nuclear test. Hiroshima has put itself at the vanguard of the nuclear anti-proliferation movement and managed to do so with a truthful look at the city's and the country's past contributions to war. Absolutely amazing.

(Footnote: seems timely too, what with this in the news: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/12/world/12nuke.html?sudsredirect=true.)