Hiroshima

The Genbaku Dome (the Atomic Bomb Dome)

Hiroshima after the blast. Almost 4 km in each direction was wiped out

Peace monument and eternal flame

Our last stop, before heading back to Tokyo to catch our next flight, was Hiroshima. We went there to check out the Peace museum and to go out to the Myanjima Island. We only had time for one of them so we chose the museum. It was tough to walk around in the rubble and read about the thousand of innocent people who died. They had artifacts ranging from Einstein`s first letters to Roosevelt, describing the new findings regarding the use of uranium 253, to clothes from the victims. The most macabre object is the wrist watch that had stopped at 08:15, the exact time the Enola Gay dropped the four thousand kg bomb that was to kill 140,000 people.

The photo above is the dome in Hiroshima, which they have kept as a memory of what happened. What`s so strange about the dome is that it is still standing. The reason for that is that the hypocenter of the atomic bomb was almost directly above the dome (the bomb detonated 600 metres above the ground to create maximum damage). Also, see the photo illustrating what the city looked like directly after the blast. The red fireball above the model of the city demonstrates the 280 metres (in diameter) core of the blast that appeared only 0,5 seconds after detonation.

Scary. And sad.