We have all seen the photos of the “bomb-dome,” usually the black and white version with the city in rubble all around it. In the picture, there remains to be seen, all around and inside the dome building, the remains of rubble from that day. At least I assume it is from that day.
I walked all around the building and I went to the museum that told in graphic images and words what happened that day. I can certainly add nothing to that.
In a high school English class (I think it was Mrs. Evan’s class) we read John Hersey’s “Hiroshima.” It is a powerful work telling the stories of six survivors of the blast. Fifty-three years later I can see the rebuilt city rising up all around the “dome.” It is certainly an energetic city, full of restaurants, tourists, bicyclists young and old. Today it was a city that was feeling an autumn chill in the air.
A few images struck me above others.
This is a bronze sculpture on the grounds of the Peace Park. It is too easy to imagine what it represents.
This is a beautiful folding screen that was in a home that was destroyed all around it. Not knowing the story, it appears that a painter of abstract modern art carefully painted black streaks down all of the panels in a random fashion. Hardly. The black streaks are from the “black rain” that fell that day, radioactive black rain. I had forgotten about the black rain.
Autumn In Japan 