Hiroshima.

As Viktor Frankl (in Man’s Search for Meaning) and others have highlighted, we are meaning-making creatures. The people of Hiroshima have had to make meaning, both individually and collectively, of their experiences. So it is for the visitor.

At 8.15 a.m. on 6th August, 1945, the Americans dropped the world’s first nuclear bomb, on Hiroshima. About 300,000 people are believed to have been resident in the city at the time and 350,000 people are believed to have been in the City on the day of the bombing. They included Japanese, many thousands of Koreans working as forced labour and American prisoners of war.

In the hours, days and months immediately following the bombing 140,000 men, women and children are believed to have died, whilst many more have died each year. Approximately 117,000 hibakusha (A-bomb survivors) are still alive today. The youngest of these were still in the womb at the time of the bombing.

One building, originally the Industrial Promotion Hall, has been preserved as a reminder of the near total destruction of the City by the atom bomb. In the Peace Memorial Park we visit the Museum which provides extensive information about the circumstances in which the bombing took place as well as about the bombing and its after-effects. The Peace Memorial Hall records the names and photographs of hibakusha along with extensive personal testimony. I watch a video with subtitles in English of a man, 11 at the time of the bombing, describing his life as a child in Hiroshima as well as his experiences of the bombing and of everything that followed.

The over-riding voice of Hiroshima, speaking through museum displays as well as personal testimony, is balanced and recognises many points of view. It includes the invitation to the Japanese people to recognise their country’s history in wreaking violence on the world. It also stands as a powerful voice for peace in the world, inviting exploration of what it takes to live in peace. Without war as well as without nuclear weapons.

Even as I am faced with the full extent of the damage to Hiroshima and its people I feel at peace. I recognise that, no matter what the actions of others, we get to choose our response and to set our intentions for the future. We get to share our intentions and to make requests of others. That the people of Hiroshima have chosen to learn from their experiences and to stand as a voice for peace in the world provides a powerful example and an inspiration.