Hiroshima Peace Museum

The Hiroshima Peace Museum is much larger than I expected, and spans many floors. Cost of entry is ¥50, about 50c, so it's obvious they're really keen to get people through the doors. The exhibition is divided roughly into two sections, the first being mostly informational, with a few artefacts on display, and the second consisting mostly of significant artefacts, with accompanying information.

Galvanised tin roofing

In the first section, the displays mostly consist of large boards of information, written in both Japanese and English (with most other languages available on a portable device). They document the history of Hiroshima, from the establishment of the city, it's use as a base in the various invasions into Korea and China, and the life and hardships experienced by the citizens during the war in the lead-up to the bombing. It discusses the American decision process in choosing the target, and the effects of the bombing. There are also models of the city immediately before and after the bomb was dropped. The contrast is huge, the second model is almost entirely level.

I have often heard the justification that by dropping the bomb atomic bombs, the Americans were able to end the war much sooner, and thus the number of deaths, both Japanese and allied, was significantly reduced from what it would otherwise have been. Scholars and laypeople alike still debate this, however I find the below quote to be compelling

"Let me say only this much to the moral issue involved: Suppose Germany had developed two bombs before we had any bombs. And suppose Germany had dropped one bomb, say, on Rochester and the other on Buffalo, and then having run out of bombs she would have lost the war. Can anyone doubt that we would then have defined the dropping of atomic bombs on cities as a war crime, and that we would have sentenced the Germans who were guilty of this crime to death at Nuremberg and hanged them?"^[52]

Leo Silzard

Other points to consider include the below, which I remember from the display, there were others:

• The Americans had spent a huge amount of money developing the bomb, and this expenditure needed to be justified. According to wikipedia, the project cost nearly $2 billion, equivalent to $24 billion in today's money.
• They gave no warning to the Japanese people that they had such a weapon in their possession. 
• They deliberately did not firebomb any of the cities that were potential targets for the A-bomb, so that they would be able to more accurately observe the effects, out of a macabre scientific curiosity. They had planes in place to photograph and take readings of the results. They parachuted in equipment along with the bomb, to enable more accurate readings.
• The Americans were demanding an unconditional surrender. However, the Japanese were at that time, already negotiating terms of surrender with the Soviet Union. This would have ended the Japanese involvement in the war, but under terms more favourable to the Japanese and Russians than to the United States. 

Thus it seems to me that significant motives were a) justifying cost of development, b) scientific curiosity and c) getting in before the Soviets did, with the last being the most important.

The displays then proceeded to immediate and long term effects of the bombing. By this stage, I was on the verge of tears, and had to sit down for a while to collect myself. Later, there was information on the development of the atomic bomb, which nations currently have active missiles, how the atomic bomb worked, how neutron and hydrogen bombs work, how much more powerful nuclear weapons have become since WWII, and how nuclear war could affect the planet. None of this was cheerful material, although it ended on a slightly more upbeat point, with what the city of Hiroshima, and what the greater world, are doing to try and prevent such eventualities.

As an interesting point, since the war, the mayors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki have written letters of protest for every single atomic weapons test conducted. (at least, those revealed to the public). I fear this gesture has little impact, but they take it very seriously indeed.

Rice bowls melted together

The second part of the display focuses more on the sorts of things you'd expect to find in a museum, ie exhibits. These included the charred and tattered remains of clothing worn by many of the victims of the blast, as well as background stories of these people, mostly children. On display are roofing tiles that bubbled (which occurs at temperatures over 1800°C), or melted. There are piles of ceramic rice bowls and glass ink-pots, melted and fused together. There are pieces of metal warped or completely crumpled by the heat. A section of an old stone bank wall has been moved into the museum. There is a shadow where an unknown person, sitting on the steps, shielded a section of stone from being bleached by the radiation.

Among the most disturbing are the pictures of burn victims. The captions to these were in Japanese only, but looking at the extent of the burns, I would think they would struggle to survive with the best medical attention available today, and in Hiroshima, medical treatment was very basic. There are also of those who survived, and mostly healed but were left with horrible, painful scarring. They actually had some of the burn scars on display. These had been surgically removed from the victims and preserved in jars. There was also information on radiation sickness, and of the kinds of cancers that developed by those who experienced the blast.

Roofing tiles

We left feeling completely emotionally drained. However, I think it is incredibly important to see this, to put a human face on the suffering. I know so much more now, and I would definitely recommend to anyone considering a trip to Hiroshima (or Nagasaki), that it is worthwhile.