Hiroshima (6/19)

A Shinkansen (Bullet) train

Destination: Hiroshima. Means: the Shinkansen, or Bullet Train. I'd heard about it all my life, one of the many incredible things to come from Japan that isn't painted as strange but instead admirable, ingenious, or superior. I find it funny that I had to go all the way around the world to catch a train ride, especially since America was practically built and is still maintained on rails. But that's a story for another time.


First, there was breakfast, and for it, I tried my very first natto!

Natto. So Japanese

Natto was explained to me as somewhat of a Japanese inside joke-- that, although it is a traditional Japanese food, many Japanese people don't even like it, and foist it on foreigners to test their mettle, measure their commitment to Japanese culture, judge how crazy they are, etc. Natto is made from fermented soybeans and, like most fermented foods, has a potent smell, and an even more potent taste. I cannot say that I was a fan; natto ranks close to vegemite as an interesting foreign food I don't feel the need to eat more of. Come to think of it, I can't recall a Korean or Chinese equivalent... all of their food (that I tried), even the "weird" stuff, is awesome!

Our trip to Hiroshima signaled the end of our time in Kyoto-- Hiroshima was to become our new home base for the remainder of our time in Japan. We collected our belongings and headed to that fancy station I blogged about earlier. We had enough of a layover that I got to do some more exploring of the facility's eye-catching architecture.

Goodbye, Kyoto!

Stairs and sculptures

Curves and angles

More of the same

It was indeed happy

Looking down from the terrace

On the way to the Shinkansen!

Here's what my journal has to say about the Shinkansen:

16 cars. Vastly more men than women; many appear to be business types/professionals. Acceleration and deceleration are both very smooth; you can't really tell physically how fast you're tearing across the country without looking out the window. Very nice train-- clean, well-maintained, plenty of accomodations including smoking rooms which somehow contain the smoke without contaminating the rest of the car or its neighbors. Walking while the train is in motion is much like being drunk--your body moves according to unexpected forces beyond your control. I thought it was pretty fun-- kinda like a sweet challenge.

Onboard the Shinkansen

More notes from my journal:

Doc Brock and I had a sweet conversation about the Japanese train system versus America's lack thereof. Car culture, gas prices, and American individualism add to the list of systemic disincentives to invest in rail which, when multiplied by the geographical expanse of the States versus Japan or Korea, provides a compelling argument for America's lack. I was able to get a few questions in about status quo and change dynamics in an abstract sense--not just in terms of rail or business or government but also anything as large as culture/society or anything as small as any given issue-area. The search continues.

Our trip flew by despite the distance, thanks to the speed of the Shinkansen, and before we knew it, we were out and about in Hiroshima. Our hotel was far closer to the train station than our Kyoto digs had been, and we passed through a mall to grab some Okonomiyaki on our way.

The opulence of Hiroshiman malls

The group breaks for lunch

Okonomiyaki!

I like

Hiroshima

Drastic change of pace: And then it was time to do what we'd come to Hiroshima to do, to visit the Peace Memorial.

Our first glimpse of the Memorial's grounds/the A-Bomb Dome looms from behind the trees

The A-Bomb Dome

The professors and placards at the park explained that Hiroshima was incorporated in 1889, is 70 square kilometers in size, and is home to 216,000 people. Hiroshima modernized throughout the 20th Century with help from military bases (it was a headquarters/was involved in the Sino-Japanese War (1894), Russo-Japanese War, and Boxer Rebellion). Because of its military involvement, Hiroshima was one of the earliest Japanese cities to develop railroads, and became even more than a military hub. It was also involved in the Japanese "emigration" to Korea (aka Japanese Imperialism), which began in the late 1870s, and the Manchurian Incident on the eve of the "Pacific War," which began in 1941. Hiroshima had undergone an "authoritarian turn," including conscription ("spiritual mobilization") and austerity. Air raid drills were common, and the population was further militarized through education. Further, Mitsubishi had moved there in 1939 and began to build warships.

But at 8:15 on August 6th, 1945, all of that changed forever.

The intersecting bridges that were used as the target for the A-bomb

Detail of the damage on the A-Bomb Dome

Still standing in its original condition since 1945

The grounds of the park were equal parts graphic reminders and tragic memorials.

People from all over the world contributed cranes to commemorate the loss of life

One of many memorials on the park's grounds

More cranes (those pictures are made from cranes)

Me ringing the peace bell

One of the many family-oriented sculptures on the grounds

Looking at the dome through a memorial

Another ode to the families that were affected

A final memorial

My notes from the memorial:

Hiroshima's museum was fucking heavy. Felt life-changingly so, in fact. I felt quite depressed, changed, and angry at the US/the nuclear status quo. I was thinking about nukes as an addiction, an escape for states. Just like any other addiction, it's a tool used to achieve a certain desired state--in this case, peace (if one can call detente in the face of nuclear annihilation "peace"). The state is entirely achievable through other means, but why try something else when the subject at hand seems so useful in achieving what one wants? In IR, we so often attribute human characteristics to states, whether as rational unitary actors or as amalgamations whose leaders imbue them with human qualities through the decision-making process. Either way, states are anthropomorphised, thus allowing for addiction too to be applied abstractly to their behavior. Consider nukes as a crutch for world peace-- their effectiveness is anything but proven. Nukes have never been used since Japan, so the theories surrounding their pacifying affects have never been tested. True, their use has come close in some notable situations, but consider the rationale for avoiding them--they will cause too much human, environmental, economic, etc. destruction, or they will incite retaliation, neither of which is desired. These outcomes are true with or without nukes! The things that prevent a state from nuking another are still present in the calculated use of any sort of force! The nukes carry no weight!

I felt depressed as fuck after the memorial. Coming back to the hotel was a blur. I slept hard; I was mentally, physically, and emotionally exhausted. ~3 hrs in that museum. I felt like a different person afterwards. I still think my opinions have been influenced by the exhibit, although I know the emotions will fade somewhat over time. I hope to make a difference somehow, someday, in some way. 

The memorial museum after 3 hrs of intenseness. The clouds and lighting were powerfully apropos

The museum didn't pull any punches. It had a multitude of artifacts from the destruction, from melted tricycles to chunks of walls and ground with those illustrious charred shadows from where humans were incinerated by the blast. It was a non-stop sensory assault, and I felt guilty to be an American there. They also had an exhibit of all the letters written by the politicians of Hiroshima to every world leader about the devastation of nuclear weapons and the need to abolish them. I found myself wishing that everyone in the world could visit the memorial. I still wish that.

I took no pictures inside. I have no content to share. I wish I could share more, but I'm sure that if you're interested you can find pictures, videos, articles, and all sorts of commentary, from people with stronger stomachs than mine.

The rest of a night, as I said in my journal, was a blur. We walked through Hiroshima back to our hotel, but I was in no mood to participate in society after all that I'd seen. I was so thankful to make it back to home base and throw in the towel for the day.

Walking the streets of Hiroshima

Another cool jazz bar I wanted to check out but was never able to make it back to

Hiroshima at night

More nightlife