CODY SHIMIZU

A look into my life, a journal to look back on, a blog for others to see.

The next day I was quite excited to be able to visit Battleship Island, an old coal mining plant that has been abandoned since 1950`s I think… I was a little worried about the boat ride there since I got sea sick super easily, but surprisingly I survived. The island was absolutely incredible, as you get closer and closer you see this concrete “ship” in the middle of the sea, the concrete structures rotting away. Unfortunately on the tour we could only see a very limited area of the island as apparently the other areas are not safe enough to have tourists visiting. I know its lame, but Id say it was still worth the trip out there, and afterwards before leaving the island we did a lap around the island to be able to see it from other angles. It was amazing to see how small the island really was but at the same time having everything it needs, from schools, hospitals, and markets.

After lunch I visited the Nagasaki Atomic Bomb Memorial, the whole experience of just even visiting the memorial was incredible, it was absolutely dead quiet inside the museum except for the running water throughout the building which was a part of the display. Inside there was this one room that had the most impact on me where there were two rows of glass towers inside leading up to a central glass pillar which contained numerous amounts of volumes of books containing all of the victims names within the books. I think it was the part where I could actually visualise the amount of destruction which took away the unsurmountable number of peoples lives just from this one bomb.

The museum that I visited after only reinforced the grand scale of destruction caused with many artifacts like, glasses, lunch boxes, tattered clothing, glass bottles fused together, and many more. The incredible thing was that each item had a story next to it, the story of the owner, the victim, the family affected by the Atomic bomb, with many stories of people covered in blood barely alive, endlessly looking for their friends and families in the rubble only finding a metal lunch box, or glass case, with their family members name engraved on it. The Atomic bomb was taught to me through a text book in Junior high, but it really didn’t do justice to the immense sorrow, heart breaks, and the pain it brought to people. It was a short walk from the Museum to the peace park, and on the way you can actually see the air raid shelters where people ran into moments after the bomb had dropped.

Next morning I left Nagasaki early to get to Hiroshima. I quickly dropped off my bags at the hostel I quickly made my way to the Atomic Bomb Museum in Hiroshima, once again it was in incredible record of stories of victims passed along, some moments before passing. The one thing I felt off about the museum in Hiroshima compared to Nagasaki was that it felt too touristy for me, (IDK if that makes sense but…) I mean it was still incredible, the accounts of the victims the belongings, the detailed explanations of the after mass and the long lasting effects medically and socially of the Atomic bomb were detailed into the museum. But something just didn’t have the same impact as Nagasaki. It was awesome to see some displays and artifacts of when president Obama visited Japan for the annual remembrance for the victims of the Atomic Bomb. When I first heard the news last year I was really happy to see that we were taking a step forward, for future generations, for peace, for future global relations. Another highlight for me was where I got to see Sadako Sasaki and her statue, which was erected to represent the Children who were victims to the Atomic bombing. I had first heard her story in elementary school when me and my teacher stated an origami club, since then every time I saw a paper crane it stuck with me, her story, and I was really happy that I actually got to go and visit the statue inspired by her. Not only that but they had some actual paper cranes that she folded herself on display in the museum. They have this fire burning just outside of the museum, the purpose is that the fire will finally stop burning when the world is rid of all of its weapons of mass destruction.

Afterwards I made my way to the Atomic Bomb Dome, an old church that was built a few years before the bomb dropped and was one of the only non-wooden buildings around, and the only building that survived around the epicentre. It was absolutely amazing, from looking at photos taken after the bombing where there is absolutely nothing standing, only smokes rising, and this one building standing upon all of the rubble, to now where it was still standing in front of me. There was a weird beauty in its half destructed form where the dome only consisted of the core steel structure with the bricks surrounding the building still in the same place on the ground, a moment in time frozen just around the church.

Since I had more time left than expected I decided to also checkout Hiroshima Castle. This was the first castle I have ever visited so I was quite excited, the grounds the castle were quite impressive and well maintained with a small garden and what looks to be rubbles of smaller buildings surrounding the castle. From the outside the castle looked really cool, the structure and the details in the design was amazing. But the inside was a completely different story, it was completely concrete walls, floors, with a ghastly turquoise colour. There were quite a few interesting artifacts but the concrete completely destroyed the vibe of the whole place, absolutely no effort was obviously put in to try and recreate the original design of the inside of the castle. I guess to be fair the old one apparently got destroyed by the Atomic Bomb as well.