Our last day in Hiroshima was devoted to the Peace Park and the museum. At 08:15am on 6th August 1945, the first Atomic Bomb was dropped on Hiroshima, it destroyed virtually the entire city and instantly killed thousands of people, in a totally horrific way and thousands more died in the following weeks - 140,000 people are estimated to have died in total. There is a visual presentation showing the city just before the explosion, then a countdown, followed by the detonation and the ending of innocent life radiating out from the epicentre.

The museum has thousands of personal stories from families who suffered death and separation - One story of a two-year-old girl, who was within the fallout area and appeared to be fine after a few days but the radiation caused her to develop Leukaemia and she died eight years later. In her final weeks in hospital she folded 1000 pieces of paper into paper cranes, as an offering to her God. The paper crane has been adopted as a symbol of peace. There is a novel called "Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes" and also a monument in the peace park surrounded by glass cases containing paper cranes that have been folded and donated in honour of Sadako and others who died,

There are hundreds of harrowing stories catalogued within the museum, it is impossible not to be emotionally moved as you read them and ashamed to be part of a species that is capable of inflicting such extreme horror on its own kind. Even today, people are still dying from cancers related to the radioactive fall-out from the bomb, not only from the direct encounter but also hereditary issues.

Every step through the museum generates strong and distressing emotions, feelings of shock and the sadness are overpowering but one feels morally and personally obliged to listen to the full story and understand the pain of the city. There is however a lack of bitterness evident amongst the people of the city and a strong commitment to peace and a sincere optimism that never again would the nightmare of Hiroshima and Nagasaki be repeated.

Footnote for Coventrians ……. We found a statue within the peace museum that bore the following inscription:

In 1995, 50 years after the end of the second world war this sculpture by Josefina De Vasconcellos has been placed by Richard Branson on behalf of the people of Coventry as a token of reconciliation.

An identical sculpture has been placed on behalf of the people of Hiroshima in the bombed ruins of Coventry Cathedral, Coventry, England.

Both sculptures remind us that, in the face of destructive forces, human dignity and love will triumph over disaster and bring nations together in respect and peace. 12th July 1995