entry nº 26b // 20180815

[part 2]

so like, what now, right? headed north on the streetcar to the atomic bomb peace park, the hypocenter, and the atomic bomb museum. want to spend a sunny winter afternoon kind of quietly crying to yourself while walking around? go check those places out. 

peace park: wide open approach up the stairs, then along the promenade through the sculpture garden, at the end the peace statue: enormous figure of a calm, collected-looking man pointing up at the sky w/ his right hand, like, what the fuck did you guys do up there, and the left hand, outstretched, palm down, in a gesture of peace. not really many people there that day, which is kind of perfect in terms of being able to reflect and try to wrap your head around it all. which you can’t of course, but still. 

they really nailed it with the museum, i think. they hit you real hard right from the get-go: you walk in through this diorama of sorts, a bit dark, wreckage of buildings all around, loud ticking of a clock in the background, video screens tucked in all over the place showing photos and video footage from the aftermath. it’s intense. they don’t really hold back on showing the full extent of it, either – corpses, people in various states of disfiguration. it’s breathtaking. 

the thing that got me, walking through there, was realizing that i tend to think of the atomic bomb being dropped as an instant, a moment – like, it explodes, and the city is leveled, and it’s done. but from all the stories and exhibits got me thinking more about the period of time stretching out immediately afterward, when many people didn’t realize what had actually happened, people trying to make their way home, find their families, figure out what was happening. the hours, the days. 

time to head back to the train station, at this point. popped on the streetcar one last time and got off at the station. bought some souvenirs for people back in fukuoka, and then ducked into a little bar on a quiet, lantern-lit street around the corner from the station to grab a beer and while away some time before my train came.