A bomb museum

Warning: This post has mildly disturbing descriptions of what is housed in the Atomic bomb museum.


The memorial museum was good but gave me very mixed feelings. When you first arrive you can choose to rent a headset that is a narration of the artifacts and stories throughout the museum. The beginning had models of the city before and after the bomb, videos of it exploding, and pictures of the Japanese people. But slowly as the museum went on the images got more and more graphic. Pictures of people crying, fleeing, and then charred laying on the street under the rubble. Close ups of images taken of the victims with faces unrecognizable. There were stone steps that had been in the blast. On it was a large black stain where a person had actually been disintegrated. There were also lots of blood stained clothes and books from the children killed.
Stories of mothers that searched for their children for weeks to no avail. A letter from an older sister who's back had been turned to the blast. She had her baby brother on a sling behind her. He was completely burned to death, saving her life. But she killed herself two years later from the guilt. A story of a father who went to his daughters school to find her things after she died. In the gym were piles of bones bound together in cloth. He picked a random collection and took it home, treating it like his daughter.
But most disturbing were the actual remains. Bones, charred hands and feet in preserves. Even a life sized model of two children fleeing the city. They were back lit with a terrible red light. The kids had horrified faces and their skin was melting off their bones.
Although all these images were horrifying and humbling, the museum also made me very angry. It never mentioned Pearl Harbor, not once. It actually said that the USA had bombed Japan because it had spent billions on research for the A bomb and the countries citizens were eager to see what their taxes had paid for in a demonstration. I know that some countries, including my own, shift history to make themselves look better but what this museum was a lie. It acted as though the act was totally and utterly unprovoked. It also failed to mention that Hiroshima was only chosen because it was the largest military base in Japan at the time.
All in all I'm not sure what to think. But I know I will not be returning.