Opened Doors – Access Granted

Hiroshima
Hiroshima has been one of the highlights of my time in Japan. It was a breath of fresh air to get away from school and studies and just everything. I woke up early at 5am to properly check out of the seminar house and walk myself to the nearest station (Makino). As I’ve mentioned before I am accident prone and easily get lost and am always confused. I think some may find that endearing and comical but the time that I least want to be either of those things is when I’m traveling. I walked into that dark morning feeling proud and happy to be going on this journey. I felt like I was doing something important even though all I did was catch a bus ride down to Hiroshima. I began to panic thinking I was going to get to Kyoto late and I panicked for nothing because I got there before the bus itself.

In the bus I was the second foreigner, the other man was with a Japanese girlfriend and he did not know a word of Japanese. This made me feel even more proud of myself. The fact that I was doing this on my own, with my own skills of Japanese and no one else’s to rely on. As I’ve mentioned before as well, being in Osaka most of the time makes it easy to forget that Japan has so much more to it. The ride was kind of long if you include the short stops. I’d say that it was around 7 hours or so. Hiroshima, at first, appeared to be a bland town. It was a cloudy day, the houses were all lacking color and dirty, there seemed to be no life. Japanese quit neighborhoods are still a bit of a culture shock just because my own culture is so loud and colorful. With Christmas around the corner my family has been telling me to pull out instruments and start playing Puerto Rican Christmas songs, to bring “el sabor”, the flavor, to the scene. I tell them I don’t have any instruments here and my aunt and mom suggested me make them from other objects. My own culture is sometimes too loud for me and sometimes Japanese culture is too quiet. Is there a culture that is in between? My future one will be! The one I create once I have my own family.

Once the sky darkened, the city definitely came alive with all of its nightlights. High school students flooded the station in their school uniforms, holding hands, bunching into giant groups of the same sex, or riding their bicycles wild enough to almost hit someone. I hadn’t seen so many school teens in one area like that. After getting lost a bit I found my hostel and didn’t feel satisfied with just staying there. I went to go try Hiroshima okonomiyaki, a famous dish in Osaka, to see what the difference between the two types really is. I ended up recording the cook as he made it for me, and I asked him from when he became interested in okonomiyaki. His reply was fast and slurred…so…I had no clue what he told me. I just replied with an, “Ah”. All I caught was something about “since ___ I’ve liked it.” They were all really nice to me at this place. Another one of the cooks came out and started asking me where I was from and what was I doing in Osaka and what brought me to Hiroshima. He then proceeded into trying to teach me Hiroshima-ben (dialect) words which was fun. They were super welcoming and all around my age. I had a great experience even if it was pricey.

After that I jumped on the city tram randomly because I still wasn’t ready to go back. I decided I would try and go see the Peace Park, dedicated to World War II. It is lit up at night. This was a moment that I truly appreciated probably because I was alone and one of the only ones in the entire park. I could freely interpret it all however I chose to.
One thing that truly touched me was when I read the various signs promoting peace.There are monuments dedicated to the ashes of the many that burned and died, monuments to the children killed during the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, etc. No one was left unacknowledged. Even in the Peace Museum the abuse of Zainichi Koreans (Koreans raised in Japan) and normal Koreans and Chinese was acknowledged. It also listed an estimate number of the foreigners that died while living in Japan during the atomic bomb.
One of my favorite messages has to be that of the Bell of Peace. It made my chest fill with emotion to see something like this come from a devastating event. I admire the people of Hiroshima. I admire them for having the strength to move forward and for ultimately forgiving the United States. You see Hiroshima now and it’s hard to imagine that a bomb truly destroyed the main bulk of the area. There are buildings soaring in the sky, lights flashing and advertising gambling and karaoke places, and everyone going on about their lives with new motivations and desires from this new world. I mean…I didn’t expect to find everyone moping around still sad over something that has happened quite awhile ago. But it’s still admirable. Can you imagine everything you owned, your family, your home, and every bit of dignity you had just being blown into pieces? Can you imagine finding your sister dead and in her school uniform when she had been running around happily that morning? Can you imagine walking down a street that held so many good memories to see people’s skin burning off of their bodies? I can’t imagine the pain that they had to endure. I can’t imagine having to find my mother’s dead body and not being able to do anything to help her or bring her back. I can’t imagine finding my school friends limp and burning all around me. I don’t think anyone can imagine what that is like unless one has been in that situation before. For this reason I almost found it hard to really empathize. It wasn’t until I saw clothes that family found of their dead children. Each item of clothing had its story. For example (off the top of my head, not entirely accurate):
This school outfit is that of Kenchiro Yamada, who was in his first year of middle school when the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima. His mother found him completely burned to death, clutching his lunch box against his body. His lunch box, to this day, contains the burnt material of his uneaten lunch.

I put myself in the situation. Finding my cousin like that. What is there you can do to help? You can’t pull out a vaccine and make it okay. You can’t whisper words that will magically make it better. People wonder what hell is like but hell is on earth every single day. Survivors of the attack drew pictures of what it was like. Fire everywhere, people walking around with their skin completely melting off of their faces and arms. What is the point of all of this? These people that died had no clue what was going to happen. Many were walking to school, at their jobs, in their homes, living a typical day. The government’s selfishness led to the death of its own people. I don’t understand why a government uses its own people as pawns to fight its battles. Do you think someone farming on a field really cares whether or not a country is about to conquer another country for more power? No. That person is trying to make it through another day in life successfully.
Hiroshima is a teacher. Hiroshima should be a teacher to the world. They went from having a civilization one moment to having absolutely nothing the next. Now how are they? They are doing just fine. They’ve recovered and did not let anything stop them from reemerging. That is fearless. That is courage. Not every city or country can recover from such blows. Some countries are still fighting the same battles they have been fighting for centuries. Some countries continue to let the death and wars go on. If I were from Hiroshima I would be proud to come from a place full of persevering survivors.
Aside from the historical side to Hiroshima I felt relief because I felt that the people were simpler than the ones I’ve been exposed to before. I saw less ridiculously expensive fashion. I saw fewer girls wearing skirts so high you can see her entire bare leg. I appreciated their casual sense of being. However, this is only judging from the two days I was there. I can’t really know unless I lived there for as long as I’ve lived in Osaka.

Hiroshima is a must for everyone. You can also catch a ferry to Miyajima island which is an amazing and beautiful island. That was totally worth visiting as well and you’ll find deer roaming around just like in Nara.
And now…after returning from Hiroshima by bus and train and sleeping (or…lack of sleeping) in a karaoke room for 6 hours I am exhausted. I am exhausted but here I am at the airport ready to go South Korea. I would have never thought I would be doing this. The only Korean I know is a string of bad, insulting words that I picked up from the 60 odd Korean movies that I’ve seen lol. I don’t think that’s going to help me much.