Day Three - Hiroshima

Alright this is my third day in Hiroshima. Today is the day we understand Hiroshima a little bit better. Everyone knows that Hiroshima was a target for the Atomic bomb, and so we wanted to go to the Peace Memorial Museum.

Today we have a new host, Professor Omar Farouk, who is my mom's friend. It was raining today, but it was thoughtful of him to drive us around.



And look what he's driving. A BMW! Seeing that people use public transport a lot in Japan, it's a rare occasion that you get to ride on a car, let alone a BMW in Japan! Truly a privellege.



A typical scene in the morning rain of Hiroshima.

We were quite hungry, so we went for lunch first. Uncle Omar took us to an exquisite Italian restaurant called Mario Espresso. Well, we all wanna know how Japanese people prepare Italian food, right? RIGHT?



Check out the menu. I love the scribbling done here. Mine is the first on the list, the Pasuta Ranchi (say that fast, then you'll know it's the Pasta Lunch :D)



And here's Uncle Omar. Looks like a British chap, doesn't he?



Wow, so this is how Japanese spaghetti looks like :) Surprisingly, it tasted quite delicious. Tasted like Aglio Olio, very mild yet tasty.



And this is what my mom had. Erm, what country are we in again?

Once lunch is done, Uncle Omar dropped us at the Peace Memorial Museum, where we could learn more of the atomic bomb that dropped here 60 years ago.



Alright, the obligatory picture of my mom in front of the museum.



The fateful day the bomb was dropped. It was a bad morning for Hiroshima.



A watch that was preserved after the nuclear blast. As you can see, the watch stopped on the dot.



Ok let me answer that. Basically, U.S. gained knowledge that Germany had their hands of some delicious Hydrogen bombs and couldn't wait to use it. So the U.S. had to come up with some super weapon that could beat the Germans.

A scientist wrote a letter to President Roosevelt that it is possible to create such a weapon. Who is this guy?



Yup, Albert Einstein himself. He really didn't know what he got the U.S. into.



And that's him, with another scientist, drafting out the letter to Roosevelt.



Yeah, why not on the Germans? How did Japan come in?



Basically, since Germany already has the technology to build bombs, the U.S. thought that it would be wise to bomb German's ally, Japan, which does not know how to stand up to a nuclear strike. So poor Japan was chosen as the target.



Actually, there were four candidate cities targeted for the atomic bomb drop. Hiroshima was chosen because it was the only one of the four cities that did not house any American Prisoner of War camps. By dropping the bomb on Hiroshima, the U.S. won't lose anything (except the bomb, of course)



So this is how the atomic bomb works. From what I gather, the hypocenter (which is directly at the bottom of the blast) doesn't seem to be affected so much, just the eye of a tornado, but I might be wrong on this one.



The bomb was targeted at this T-bridge, called Aioi Bridge. This is how Hiroshima looks like after the blast. As you can see, the hypocenter is not affected so much...



...compared to the rest of the place. This building is still preserved in this state in the Peace Memorial Park, but since it was raining, we'll visit it tomorrow.



Very devastating indeed.



Conveniently, there was a plastic 3d model of the city before and after the blast. This is how the T-bridge looked before the blast...



...and after the blast. The bridge is still intact, at least.



From the beautiful old town to Hiroshima...



...to a vast desert of dead people, burnt concrete and steel.



Here's a photograph of the people a few minues after the blast. This place is around 3 km from the hypocenter. Quite far, but not quite far from the radiation.

It's really a sad and touching exhibition. I was moved, but my mom actually cried. She was thinking of the thousands of innocent lives that got caught up in this political mumbo-jumbo. However, there's hope...



ONE DAY after the blast, the Japanese restored electric power to the city. Then THREE DAYS later, all the street car services resumed. Sasuga Nihonjin desu ne (Yup, that's the Japanese we all know). A classic example of how victory emerges from defeat.



Those are not tiles, man! Few months after the bombing, the mayor of Hiroshima sent letters to leaders around the world who hold nuclear weapons and pleaded them to stop testing and using bombs altogether.



So far, 590 letters have been written, so obviously not all the letters are pasted there.



And here's the latest one, to George Bush. As if that donkey would ever listen.



Wow, looks like some super villain world domination thingy, doesn't it? Anyway, this is Earth (as viewed from the top, meaning North Pole at the center) with missiles sticking out the countries that still depend on nuclear warheads for military purposes.



Countries include U.S. (duh), China, France and even the latest ones: India and Pakistan.

On another board, the exhibition tells us that school textbooks around the world educate students on the history and imminent danger of atomic bomb warfare. And look what book we have here:



Awww isn't this just a little TOO nostagic?



The various types of mushroom clouds.



This is the 2nd part of the exhibition, which features the effects of an atomic bomb drop. Very cool setup.



Erm ok ok, please don't drop an atom bomb on me... pleeeaasseee...



The structure of the bomb. Such a simple small thing could kill more than 140,000 people in one go. That's the power of science.



A tricycle and helmet obtained from the scene.



Wow this is a cool way to prove a scientific theory. You know why there are holes only in the letters? Because black absorbs more heat than the other colours. Of course, this is a sad way of proving a simple theory, so please don't try dropping an atomic bomb at home.



Guess what this is... give up? Nope not a human organ... this used to be a roof tile. Yea it must have been very VERY hot that day.



Oh no, this is quite a sad story. Maybe you've heard of it before. Sadako was 2 years old when the bomb was dropped, but she didn't have any injuries whatsoever. However, when everyone thought that she's ok, she suddenly contracted leukemia at the age of 11 and had to be hospitalized the next day. It was found that it was part of the effects of the nuclear blast.

One day, as a hospital gift, she got a paper crane. She heard a rumour that if she folded a thousand paper cranes, her wishes would come true.



And my goodness, she folded MORE THAN a thousand paper cranes, and each one was the size of half an average human thumb.



Sadly, fate interveined and took her life. Because of her, the Peace monument was built in the Peace Memorial Park, where people contribute more and more paper cranes to her every year. An amazing but true story.



Ooh, look who visited the Museum. Seems like he was proud to be the King of MALAYSIA.

ok we exited the museum. We were hoping that the rain would stop, but it didn't. So we just walked to the hotel and waited for Uncle Omar to pick us up for dinner. But first...



Yes, another daily posting of my yeng acting-like-as-if-i'm-walking-and-looking-to-my-left-or-right photo!

ok so when i reached the hotel, i chatted on MSN, mostly with the (if )ians, before Uncle Omar arrived at the hotel. I packed up the laptop and immediately went into his car.

We stopped by at an automatic parking lot. That's right, an automatic parking lot. The above video should show how it works.



This is part of the shopping complex. What I notice about Japan's shopping complex is that some of them tend to go for the outdoor approach, like the one I saw in Roppongi Hill two years back.



Another obligatory picture of my mom.



We went to this 6 floor plaza housing only restaurants. So, come on, take your pick!

In the end, we chose a place where we could eat some tempura. Basically my mom missed the smelt that she had on the first day of the Hiroshima stay.



Here's Uncle Omar again, deciding on what to order.



And a little surprise shot of my mom. Oh drat, my mom noticed.



Here's another portion of the restaurant. Looks like it was cut out from a regular Japanese house, right? With the sliding doors, the hanging coat and all.



And this is the tempura set that we had. I really ate a lot, coz my mom passed me some as well. It was truly delicious. Thank you, Uncle Omar!



And this is the smelt that my mom ordered. We love this, coz this oversized anchovy practically has no bones. We also just found out that it's a Hiroshima special dish. Lucky us :D

After that, we headed home. On the way to get into the car, I saw this shopping mall guide.



Doesn't it look so cool? At the base, we have the actual floor plan of the bottom floor...



...whereas we have some staggered floors to briefly explain what is on each of them. Genius!

Uncle Omar then proceeded to get back his car. Here we go again, the automatic car park!

Alright that's all for today! Just a little hint of what might happen tomorrow: it'll be a very artsy day :D Good night everyone.