Second Atomic Bomb
Trip Start
Sep 10, 2007
1
84
95
Trip End
Ongoing
Nagasaki,
Japan
Thursday, March 27, 2008
As our JR pass was still valid we decided to head south to Nagasaki to check it out. We met a guy who said that going to Nagasaki after being in Hiroshima would be a waste of time although he had been in neither city, and we were so glad afterwards that we did not heed his advice. We got the slowest oldest train yet in Japan to go to Nagasaki, it would still be about as good as Iarnroid Eireann standard though. The journey took us 2 hours, so it was fine. When we arrived in Nagasaki we headed straight for the atomic bomb museum. Hiroshima was uranium and Nagasaki was a plutonium bomb, plutonium is much more powerful.
It was an excellent exhibition, there was so much inforamation about the 2 bombs, real life stories, real life footage, loads of information on the events leading up to the bombs, on all the research for the atomic bombs and the current facts about atomic bombs
.....
. They showed us footage of the testing of bombs in Navada and New Mexico in the US, Kazakhstan by the Russians and how the Russians used nearby villages for live research!!!! Its scary the amount of testing that has gone on all over the world. 2000 tests have been recorded.
Also they showed interviews with people who have been exposed to radiation during this testing and the suffering they have endured since then. It was a real eye opener for us and probably the best museum we have been to in a long long time.
After visiting the museum we walked around the Peace Park, it was lovely with all the cherry blossoms in full bloom. The Japanese are passionate about the annual cherry blossoms, and in March and April the blossoms are everywhere, spreading northwards all the time. Before we came to Japan we were talking to a Japanese guy on the Whitsunday trip and he was delighted for us that we would be in Japan to witness the cherry trees in blossom. Now that we have seen this beautiful sight first hand we appreciate their admiration.
We visited the hypocentre of the atomic bomb, and after that we decided to head off for a look at the Catholic Cathedral, this was the biggest Catholic church in Asia prior to the bombing, the reason for this was that Nagasaki was the first point of landing for the missions in Japan (mainly the Portuguese). In front of the rebuilt cathedral there are some of the original statues and pieces from the old cathedral, however as you would expect, the cathedral was levelled by the bomb and most of the cathedral was destroyed by the same event.
The train back to Hakata was a little bit more modern and so we made better time.
