Comparing War Zones: Past Enemies, Present Comrades

April 22, 2009

Throughout history there has always been things that have gone wrong, things that people have done that others don’t like and this leads to conflict. Conflict leads to war. Out of the itinerary that we were participating in, we were traveling to multiple countries in which war had taken place with their people and ours. I went on multiple trips in which I visited different locations from past wars and memorial sites. Of these they included, Vietnam, Hiroshima and Pearl Harbor
In Vietnam I found it interesting how I was treated there. I was treated nicely, and I expected to get some stares from some of the locals there. After all I was in a place where the U.S. attacked them and I was a U.S. citizen. We were not allowed to talk about the war or were atleast strongly advised against it because it was still alive to an extent and still is hurting people.
I encountered some of the same feelings in Japan when I visited Hiroshima. The first thing I noticed was how it was a beautiful place and so peaceful. In talking to some of the Japanese people who worked there they said that history is behind us, the U.S. did bombs here but all is forgiven now. They just want to educate the people on what happened. Especially the younger generation, they for the most part weren’t alive during this time but they want them to know the story so they can appreciate it and try and prevent things from coming to this end again. It was one of the most peaceful cities; they really act on what they say there. The museum was very interesting and incredibly moving.
It was interesting to be an American in the museum. The museum wasn’t necessarily one-sided or condemning the U.S. in any way. I felt awkward at times. It was similar to walking into the war museum in Vietnam. We we’re all treated as equals and sometimes you wonder to yourself “why?” After all, I thought towards them, “don’t you know who I am, I’m American, and doesn’t that bother you here?” But it didn’t at all. We we’re all mixed together in the place where such tragedy occurred, in a war between our countries.
It was a surreal feeling walking through the museum and so sad to read all the stories. They had pictures and videos playing. They showed the actually footage of the nuclear bomb attack from the cameras on the U.S. planes and others who were able to film bits of what it looked like. It was something to see for sure. We basically walked through a timeline of what had happened, and we’re accompanied with artifacts and things that were still left such as someone’s watch that was stopped at 8:15, when the bomb dropped. They we’re killed on site. The beginning was about the war and the events leading up to it. I learned a lot about Hiroshima and how it was picked to be the place where the bomb was to be dropped. The end of the tour is what was the saddest because it went into detail of what happened during the blast and its aftermath. There was a model of the city built to show what it looked like before and then a second one for afterwards. Hanging above each model was a red ball to symbolize the bomb dropping and where it was to hit.
Their was an exhibit built showing a part that was hit by the bomb, and there we’re people models in the exhibit that we’re showed burned extremely, so bad that their skin was shown melting off of them so the point that you couldn’t recognize them. That put things in perspective for me, I could not even imagine that, the pain and what happened. Where the bomb went off, there were a lot of children’s schools nearby. They were affected greatly by this disaster and so many of them died.

There were a lot of stories about particular children. There would be shown a torn burned dress from a girl who was there and under it they had her story, how she ran home after the blast to her parents and ended up dying when she got home because of her wounds. The picture said that she sewed that dress for herself the summer before. They had so many detailed stories that really helped to put things in perspective. That it wasn’t just that a lot of people died. So many were affected, they all had lives, have stories. Sharing those stories really brought it home; it made it easier to make a personal connection. This really helped me to understand more about the war and what happened there. I was no longer viewing things from one side anymore, from the American side just because that’s who I was. I was taking in all sides and understanding and accepting others, ideas, views, hatred, confusion and sorrow. I could understand it all now.

I was lucky enough to get to go to Hiroshima and also Pearl Harbor. It was interesting to see both sides of things from each of the countries on these related disasters. Interesting again was that the majority of people at Pearl Harbor and visiting the Arizona Memorial in my group were Americans and Japanese as this is a popular vacation destination for them. Once again I found myself in a place that was attacked in the past by ancestors of those who were standing with me right there. It was surreal to imagine that long ago this was a place of tragedy where our two countries fought yet here we were again together, learning together, mourning together, understanding, forgiving, remembering and honoring together what had happened here and the lives that were lost in a war between us. I understood now.
It was such a surreal and great feeling to be there with them and to know that I was not being judged and nor were they. We were there for the same reasons they were. We had overcome the past and were no longer enemies, but friends honoring the past and looking ahead to the future to help make sure such tragedy did not happen again. And we were doing it together now.