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My first full day in my new town was on August 6, 1990. The day before, a couple of town hall employees had picked me up in Kobe and together we had driven a couple of hours to the small town that would be my home for the next year, Asago, deep in the heart of Southern Japan’s Chugoku Mountains. I was settled into my new home, a spacious, two-story house along side the Maruyama River.
On my 2nd trip to Hiroshima. May 16, 2008.
That night teachers, administrators and PTA luminaries with Asago Middle School, where I would teach for the next year, threw a welcome party for me. It was the first of several welcome parties.
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The next morning another introductory whirlwind. I was brought to the Principal’s office where I would be officially received. The Vice Mayor and Superintendent of the Board of Education were there, too. In the corner of the Principal’s office a television was on, showing the morning news. Just as the initial introductions were made everything stopped. It was as though the wind suddenly went out of the sails of a previously fast-moving ship. It took me a couple of beats and a quick glance over at the television: it was 8:15 in the morning of August 6, 1990, 45 years to the minute that an atomic bomb had detonated over Hiroshima. The television was showing the live service — then with everyone’s heads bowed for 1 minute — from Hiroshima Peach Park. After that moment of reverent silence, we all went on . . .
Middle School Student at Hiroshima Peace Park Museum. May 16, 2008.
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On Sunday, August 6, 1945 at 8:15 a.m., the bomb called "Little Boy", the first of two atomic bombs dropped on Japanese cities within a 72 hours, detonated about 2,000 feet above Hiroshima. It's estimated that around 70,000 people were instantly killed, while another 70,000 people died in the hours, days, weeks, months and years from the effects of The Bomb.
Teacher with Middle School Students. Hiroshima Peace Park. The blast's hypocenter would've been just above and a few hundred yards from where they were sitting when I took this pic in May 2008.
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In May of 2008 I and a Professor of Japanese History lead a group 9 University of Alabama-Birmingham students to Japan for a 10-day culture and history trip. Besides Kyoto, Osaka, Nara and Himeji, we visited Hiroshima for a couple of days. I believe all of the students were moved by their time in Hiroshima. It was only my second visit. I was glad to see that the Museum had been updated dramatically since I first went there in the spring of 1991: it included extensive information about Japan’s road to war and imperial dreams, which were all but missing in the earlier incarnation of the Museum that I had seen. Nevertheless, to see all the children there and to know . . .
As any American who’s visited Hiroshima will tell you, there is simply no city with kinder, more gentle-souled people than Hiroshima. The warmth (or even nonchalance) with which they treat Americans is beyond humbling.
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Hiroshima bustles today. Photo taken May 16, 2008. Near Peace Park. "Atomic Bomb Dome" is just behind me. Stadium for the "Hiroshima Carp" is just out of frame to the left.
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