Hiroshima and I

was thinking about this topic for a while us. many years went by, but think a lot of things are cycle around this 'Hirojima'. have you ever seen the movie - Grave of the fireflies? one of the most sad, depressing, mulling but thoughtful animation you can fine. of course, everyone knows where this place is. even don't know how exactly nuclear bomb works, nor how big damage a atom bomb can make (needless to say nuclear bomb but most people don't distinguish atom and nuclear bomb).

so, any way some how not sure why, I read all the nuclear engineering stuff, understood most necessay terms and realize the danger,destructive and the hope of nuclear technologies. I was sort reasonalizing this by my general interesting about astronology. then people will ask why and how these two are relatived. mmm indeed they are. in theory, the 'big explosion' - the start of everything, was a huge nuclear reaction. our sun is actually as dangerous balanced nucleat reaction. and the hope of ultimate energy source - nuclear fusion, is a nuclear reaction in theory thay human being never achieved but broadly used in sci-fi scheme. ok, so Hirojima, the place first showing the destructive facet of nuclear technology, was always the place I was thinking to visit.BUT because it is destructive, I knew it is not going to be pleasant so always at the bottom of my tour list. before talk about Hirojima trip, let's take a step back talk about another event happened much earlier relating to Hirojima. one of my first black and white french movie, is titled ' love in hirojima' I watched in national taiwan university's video library. I don't remember much about that movie but did realize how painful it is to watch sex scene in black-white movie. you generally cannot recognize what is what!!! haha. well, I was assuming the movie is saying the power of love is like the bomb in hirojima? anyway, I don't remember any script in that movie.


so, back to 2003, I had a chance to visit Hirojima. hum.. funny is, the intention was not hirojima, it was miyajima, one of the most culture legend place in japan (if you read me earlier post). we soon realized miyajima is at the out skirt of hiroshima. in order to get on miyajima. connect through hiroshima by shinkansen or airplane is necessary. thus, I guess that is the faith. the faith in my life that I have to see the destructive facet of nuclear technology. 3 days trip. first night at hiroshima and second night on miyajima. that's it and we set to go. we went in hiroshima in the early morning. thus, other than enjoy the less modern (of course less crowded street) and hiroshima yaki, the peace park is of course the place to go. I was initially just thinking to visit the part, rather than museum. but we eventually end up gettinginto the atom bomb museum and spend most morning in there. however, in fact, we did not finish all th exhibition. we gave up at probably a little more than half of the museum. I remembered we walk out the museum around 1pm in the afternoon, but without any appetition. Actually feeling food is disgusting............. and we were quite for next hours or so. luckily, that evening, we went to a famous hiroshima yaki shop. just like most famous japanese shop, there was always a line of people waiting. a LONG one! it certainly trigger ur appetition and eventually we waited a hour and half. (damn you definitely feel hungry after that waiting). that is about hiroshima. second day morning we took the train and ferry to Miyajima and went into a totally different world.

2004, I moved to US and end up at Virginia, not far away from DC. so, have been thinking about the national air and space museum. so,finally nov last year, after 3 years we moved to here, we finally got a chance. Well, I firstly get excited because they have a real B-29. the bomber used broadly in WWII pacific war zone.

however, soon I realized tht is the Enola Gay, the one drop the bomb at Hiroshima.My heart sunk in first 5 mins, all the memory regarding Hiroshima pop up back in my brain and stirred up my stomach.
I keep telling myself that I am coming here to see a engineering mavel, nothing about war and nuclear......... but still, that 5 mins wasn't pleasant.
couple weeks back, I had the second chance to visit the museum and got another chance to look into it closerly. I finally learnt it participate in both bom dropping, hiroshima and nagasaki.
well, I have to claim it is a evil machine now. B-29 itself is really an excellent achievement. but this one is really built up to be the evil I think. it is just like the computer itself is a significant innovation. but some of them do involve in spam and virus speading (ha! stupid metaphor)
ok. I think my memoirs regarding Hiroshima should stop here. I noticed I had another post about hiroshima more than two years ago. well, I probably did mention this place more than others. ok... move on.