Day 45: 15 May 2009

LOCATION: NAGASAKI
MOOD: REFLECTIVE
LISTENING TO: COLDPLAY – VIOLET HILL

NOBODY REMEMBERS WHO CAME SECOND:

As much fun as Fukuoka had been there wasn't room for a second day, so I hopped on a train and headed for Nagasaki. It felt strange going to the site of another atomic bombing only a few days after Hiroshima, and given how moved I had been by Hiroshima I wasn't exactly sure what was awaiting me in Nagasaki. In my mind Nagasaki had always been lumped together with Hiroshima as 'the other' atomic bomb city; it seemed perpetually in the shadow of the first victim.

The view from Nagasaki central station. It became somewhat of a tradition to take a photo as soon as I got off the train in a new city.

My first impression of Nagasaki partially confirmed this view and partially altered it. Nagasaki has a much more textured, subtle flavour to it than Hiroshima. Hiroshima is built on a delta (ie it's flat), and was primarily a mercantile city. Nagasaki on the other hand is a port city boxed against the sea by soaring mountains, and it has a long and rich cultural history apart from the bombing. Where Hiroshima is bright and vivacious, Nagasaki is reserved and tempered. While Hiroshima feels fresh and new, Nagasaki feels cultured and old. The two cities really are worlds apart.

One thing Hiroshima and Nagasaki DO have in common however are cable cars. Still as rickety and slow as ever.

I took a cable car to my hostel, which lay in the foot of the hills. This might seem pretty far out of town, but it actually wasn't – Nagasaki's tall buildings are bunched in tightly around the station while houses and smaller buildings dot the hills that surround this area. It was a nice,quiet spot, so I bought a takeaway bento (packed lunch) and ate by the banks of the river just outside my hostel.

My hostel was on the banks of this river. People who I've shown this photo to have either said that the place looks charming, or decrepit.

After lunch I headed in to dispose of the box (remember, no public bins in Japan) and I bumped into an American who was working for the hostel in exchange for board. We were the same age and we got talking about a lot of things from American college life to the state of world politics and our experiences in Japan. It turned out that he had been in Nagasaki for a number of months, and he recommended that even though there was plenty to see, the atomic bomb museum should be my first of call. He also asked me whether I liked drinking, which would foreshadow the events that followed the next night. But more about that later.

The view from my room on the fourth floor.

RELIVING A NIGHTMARE:

I arrived at the museum fairly late in the afternoon and I was concerned that I wouldn't be able to see the whole thing before closing time. Luckily there weren't the hordes of school kids like there had been at Hiroshima, but in their place were several obnoxious (or at least oblivious) Western tourists who kept on taking flash photographs even though there were clear 'no camera' signs everywhere. I would have understood if the exhibits were cultural artefacts or something of that manner, but it just seemed bad manners to walk around taking pictures of people's suffering when there were explicit signs asking you not to.

The complex is built up in the hills, and this towering structure acts as your point of reference when navigating Nagasaki's winding roads.

The memorial doesn't exactly have a linear layout, but I guess this could be called the main entrance.

The view from the entrance.

As for the museum itself, it differed from the Hiroshima museum just as Nagasaki the city differed from Hiroshima the city. Given that its history is rich and detailed, Nagasaki eschewed the 'before the bombing' section and leapt straight into the action. You're greeted first by a reconstruction of a bombed out cathedral, complete with exhibits of melted rosaries and communion cups. Nagasaki has historically been one of the hubs of Christianity in Japan.

Following this you move into a short section detailing the actual bombing, after which a much lengthier section is dedicated to chronicling its aftermath. Following the Hiroshima bombing the authorities wisened up and so the response in Nagasaki's case was much swifter, as was the media coverage. Accordingly, while Hiroshima's museum had relied primarily on your imagination and sense of empathy, Nagasaki's museum hit you with the cold hard photographs and facts. This gave the Nagasaki museum a more clinical, academic feel, but it didn't fail to convey the depth of the human suffering. The human cost was brought into sharp relief by a section devoted to the stories of survivors and witnesses. Particularly moving was the story of Korean forced labourers who had been brought to work in Japan. Not only were they de facto slaves, they were working outside and thus exposed to the full brunt of the bomb. This, combined with widespread prejudice against Koreans and their inability to speak Japanese meant that a lot were simply left to die either out in the open or shut away in a dark room together away from medical supplies and other relief.

The final part of the museum is dedicated to chronicling the history of nuclear weapons, with a special focus on the Cold War. In addition to several interesting videos (including one on the after affects of nuclear testing) there was a display that simultaneously charted the development of the world's nuclear arsenals with the development of the world's nuclear disarmament movements.

This is the only part of the museum I felt comfortable photographing. It's the final section of the tour, dedicated to disarmament. The warheads are an ominous reminder of the importance of peace.

After finishing up at the museum I decided to take a look at the memorial monuments. Once again the differences between Hiroshima and Nagasaki were brought into sharp relief. While Hiroshima is flat and has managed to fit all its atomic bomb related material together in one place, Nagasaki is mountainous and has its sights scattered around a fairly broad area. In addition to this, while Hiroshima has a lot of small statutes that primarily focus on the human experience, Nagasaki has only a few main monuments, each of which is dedicated more to concepts (eg peace) than experiences.

Perhaps the best illustration of this is a comparison of both cities' ground zeros. Hiroshima has the Atomic Bomb Dome, a burned out shell of a once proud building. Nagasaki by comparison has a solid black pillar errected directly below the detonation point. By all counts, Nagasaki is the more cerebral experience, while Hiroshima's impact is very much visceral.

This statue, erected in the same clearing as the hypocentre monument (which marked the spot where the bomb went off), is intended to symbolise the concept of motherhood.

The hypocentre monument. The black pillar points directly to where the bomb was detonated.

This is one side of an arch from a famous Nagasaki cathedral that was otherwise completely levelled by the blast.

This piece is entitled 'Triumph Of Peace Over War', and was donated by the city of San Isidro in Argentina. It's perhaps the most abstract of the monuments in the memorial park.

When you enter the memorial park you pass by this fountain before you enter the boulevard of sculptures. Many survivor accounts recall victims pleading for water and even drinking from pools contaminated with radioactive ash. These fountains are intended to provide solace to the souls of those victims.

This sculpture dominates the peace park. The strange pose is apparently premeditated, with the position of each limb having significance. If I remember correctly, the right hand points up to where the bomb went off and the left hand stretches out towards peace.

This straightforward piece was donated from the Soviet Union. In spite of the Cold War (or perhaps because of it) the peace park openly received donations from nations across the globe and political spectrum.

These are the remains of a prison that was previously located where the peace park stands today. All the guards and prisoners perished together.

RETAIL THERAPY:

The atomic bomb museum and its related parks and monuments are up in the hills, and I somehow managed to get lost again as I tried to find my way back. After eventually making it back to the tram stop I decided to head back to the station area to see if I could get something to eat and liven up my mood a little.

The view from Nagasaki station at night.

I ended up eating at a somewhat tacky American-themed steakhouse, after which I went to the nearby Tower Records to buy some CDs. It was somewhat jarring going from the atomic bomb museum to the modern junk food lifestyle, but it was also perhaps healthy to get my mind out of the past and refocus on life in the present.

The melon soda float did cheer me up a little.

The bridge in front of my hostel. I think this shot was universally approved of.