Nagasaki day 1!
On the 4 hour train journey here -have to go from Beppu to Fukuoka, then Fukuoka to Nagasaki- I spotted an interesting town we stopped at called 'USA'. Apparently factories would create their products their so they could stamp them saying 'Made in USA'. Cheeky b******s.
Anyway! I got to the hostel fine. No problems. Then when I went to check in..I realised I have booked in for two nights starting the next night...
So that was fun! But I did manage to find an ok hotel at last minute! Yay!
Was good because I found this little restaurant next to the hotel and had dinner there. Had 'champon' which is Nagasaki's dish and damn it was good.
Today was quite emotional. After dumping my stuff at the hostel (decent place!) I went to the Atomic Bomb Museum and Memorial for the Atomic Bomb Victims.
Heavy stuff. Very heavy.
It went into detail about the mechanism of the bomb, why it was used, why Nagasaki was bombed, the radiation affects both acute and long term, where it landed, how far the effects reached, how long they lasted, the effects on the wildlife, plant life, water, all kinds.
The section on the acute affects of the bomb were horrific. The pictures were just so devastating to see. People who were burned so badly their skin melted.
Fingers melted together.
The testimonies were very detailed and horrifying. I won't recall them on here.
The last photo they had was of a young boy stood by the side of some tracks with his little toddler brother strapped to his back, sleeping.
Then the photographer explains when he took the photo he thought the same thing, that the boy was sleeping. He wasn't. Some men came over, took the little child and places him on burning wood.
I didn't stay to see the list of names as it was 90,000 strong.That might just be the acute deaths rather than the over all number.
After leaving there I went over to the Peace Memorial Park. Very pretty park. Many statues dedicated to the A-Bomb victims. And they had the hypo-centre monument there as well. Standing next to it and looking up and imagine just a short distance above you a bomb that took thousands of lives went off there.
After taking some time seeing the park I took my time walking back to the hostel.
Emotionally tiring day that was.