Peace Park
People who know me realize that I am a funny guy. I always have some "smart" comment to make. Walking through Peace Park and the Atomic Bomb Museum(sorry, no photos allowed), I didn't have a single amusing thing to say. I just looked, watched and tried to face the reality of the situation. Here are some pictures a a place you owe yourself to see in person sometime.
PART 1:DEATH
This is it. Ground Zero. This is the exact spot where the second Atomic Weapon exploded. An author decsribed this place as the center of the "concentric circles of death". The bomb killed many people instantly, but for those "lucky" enough to survive the radiation sicness would start. Everyday more people would die. Concentric Circles of Death. The circles getting larger and larger everyday. This is where it started.
Urakami Cathedral Ruins. Please see below for a description.
Description of the above picture
Peace Fountain. See below for Description
Description of the Peace Fountain
Ground level at the time of the explosion. He had to take a staircase down about 20 feet to get to this point. Note that you can see small fragments of tea cups, bricks, childrens toys...
A description of the ground level site
This statue was silent. But I could feel it screaming.
A few yards past this statue was the Atomic Bomb Museum. After the main gate a spiral staircase thaes you down into the exhibit rooms. This represents a descent into Hell. The subtlety is not lost. The museum is filled with artifacs, ruins, photoes and one chilling display after another. There are many clocks all stopped at 11:02. The exact time of the explosion. These broken clocks, frozen in time. A monotonas ticking sound echoes through the Museum constantly. It is eerie beyond belife. No photos were allowed, so you must see it for yourself. You really must.
PART 2:HOPE
The Nagasaki Peace Statue: he points upward to remind of the constant threat of war and onward as a sign of progress.
The true story of"Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes" tells of a 12 year old girl dying of leukaemia who belives she will get better if she can fold 1000 oragami cranes. Sadly she dies before she can complete this task. Her school friends finished the job and she was buried with 1000 paper cranes. In renemberance, schoolchildren from all over Japan make thousands of these paper cranes and bring them to nagasaki. Each of the strands seen here in the picture are 1000 cranes. These are everywhere in Peace Park.
Each of these Mosaic-like pictues is made entirely of paper cranes. These are on display inside the main gate of the Atomic Bomb Museum.
PART 3:REFLECTION
I was going to post these photos earlier, but due to recent events in New York and America as a whole, I couldn't bring myself to. There are so many parallels in descriptions of the suffering. But now the tears are starting to dry and we must stand together and face the realities of life. War is terrible. No matter where it is. Sometimes war is necessary, but please never forget the human factor. We like to point a finger of blame. "After all, ________ started this..." There is a photo of a 5-year old girl with radiation burns up and down her body. Tell me that she deserved this. Rescue workers in New York died in falling rubble trying to save total stranges in the World Trade Center. Some people will say America deserved this. Agree or disagree with war. I personally stand in the middle. But it would take a heart of stone to not be crying tears of blood at the loss of innocent life. Please think about this. If more people did, there would be less reason to.
-Kevin Tambornino 9-26-2001
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