Hiroshima & Nagasaki — 80 Years of Remembrance

Hiroshima & Nagasaki — 80 Years of Remembrance

In 1945, the world changed forever. In ending a war that took too many lives, Hiroshima and Nagasaki bore the weight of unimaginable destruction. Today, 80 years later, we came here to listen and remember. Welcome to a special edition of Linen Paul’s Excellent Adventure. [Music] Lynn and Paul’s Excellent Adventure. A 4-year voyage while living on a cruise ship. [Applause] [Music] Well, this is a special edition of the Linen Paul’s Excellent Adventure Show. Today’s adventure, we are in Hiroshima. And of course, uh Hiroshima probably best known for a location that the atomic bomb was dropped to uh end World War II back in the 40s, 40 and 45. And Hiroshima’s taken a whole park now and dedicated it toward the remembrance of that. Right. It’s where kind of and this is interesting because the bomb actually didn’t hit the ground. It blew they it exploded in the air 600 m above 600 m above and uh so uh where ground zero this area is um so there’s a whole exterior um to the park to the peace park. Uh we are in the National Peace Memorial Hall. Um where there are uh photos, there are uh there’s a uh in the center is a place where you can um take a moment to reflect. There’s a a video uh running about stories. Uh there’s an archive where you can go in and you can sit down and pick different stories to listen to and there’s a special exhibit that’s going on. Um but we’re not going to tell you a whole lot about the park because we’ve got someone special to actually bring you the recollection of that day back in the ‘ 40s. Um our guide today happened to be a second generation survivor. Her mother and father were both alive and survived the atomic blast. Her mother was 5 months old and her father was nine nine years old. And uh she tells the story of her grandparents and their survival or not survival, but we’ll let you hear her story from a perspective of the people of Hiroshima, Japan. Okay. I’m Masa. Thank you for coming to Hiroshima. I’m so appreciate you are coming too. And uh you made a thousands of origami cranes. You know what that meaning, right? The origami crane is a symbol of peace. That is because of this monument. Can you see the girl standing on the top? Her name is Sado. I know your the Saddako story, right? So the Saddako Sako was bomb when she was 2 years old and uh she survived and grew up healthy just as normal. like a typical elementary school girl. But 10 years later, she’s got leukemia suddenly and she’s got hospitalized. Then she start falling the thousands of or origami cranes because the crane is a symbol of long life. Bird crane is the symbol of long life in Japan. So she believed if she fold the thousands of origami cray she will get better and she she wants it she wanted to get out from the hospital but there was no origami papers at that time. So she made the medicine paper into small pieces and fold it fold it folded it and she made it but unfortunately she died eight months later. So her friends was so sad and her friends raised the boys to create the monument for her and also the children who suffered from the atomic bomb disease. Many children died with the leukemia leukemia or whatever you know related to the radiation. So 19 58 this monument was founded and right now the many people like you uh visit here have some small ceremony and donate the thousands of cranes. the many kids, Japanese kids, foreign kids, they visit here and donate the thousands of origami cranes, hop in peace. And I’m so glad you come here and donate the thousands of crane. Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park is a memorial park in the center of Hiroshima, Japan. Many residents of the Odyssey took a guided tour of the park and then presented 1,000 paper cranes as part of the ship’s global harmony community. The paper cranes were folded by residents of the ship over a period of several months leading up to our visit to Hiroshima. My mom was born in 1945 March. So she was only the five month baby at that time. So she doesn’t have any memories about it. But my dad, he was 9 years old. He lived in 1 kilometer uh 0.6 miles away from here. It’s pretty close. Yeah. And um he was he was having a breakfast with his mother and younger brothers. But when the bomb exploded, their house collapsed and they were under rubble and couldn’t get out and passed out for a while. But after the bombing, the whole city stopped burning because of the heat. Uh, it goes to 3 to 4,000° Celsius. It’s about 5400 to 7200 Fahrenheit. So, the whole city start burning and they realized with the smell of smoke then tried to get out from the rubble then all them all of them could get out. So it’s kind of miracle you know not many people could get out from the rubble you know many people died under the under the their collapsed house and burned. So my father was very very lucky and uh but the bomb changed their life you know the my father was kind of rich but they lost everything. They have to from they have to do start living from the scratch. No house, no money, no job. But we did you know but my father didn’t tell me about anything you know I asked him many times what did you see what was happened after the bombing but he never told me he was traumatized because 9 years old boy he remembered everything and I think it’s very hard to talk about it. So, I couldn’t hear from my father, but uh I’m from Hiroshima, so I’ve heard many many testimonies. So my I can imagine what kind of life my father went through and mom went through and uh it was hard to live in Hiroshima and you will see uh what’s going to happen after the bombing in the museum. There was so many discriminations. They are afraid of when I’m gonna get disease and women cannot get married and it it lasted decades and decades. So everyone from Hiroshima hide the fact you know they are from Hiroshima for decades. So that’s what happened in Hiroshima. But we try to encourage each other, helping each other to rebuild the city again. Okay. So that’s my family story. Okay. Okay. So talk about the atomic bomb dome. This is soal atomic bomb dome. A bomb dome and uh this is one of the world heritage sites. Uh we have two Miaima Kushima shrine and Atomic Bombdong. We have two. So this building uh it’s original not the replica. This is original and it used to be a a commercial hall the governmental commercial hall. It was built in 1912 uh designed by the Czech architect and uh this area was the downtown. So this building was so beautiful and the kind of symbol of Hiroshima city. This area I told you the downtown of Hiroshima. Now the part no houses are here but so many houses and restaurants and hotels and uh you know movie theater was here but it’s all gone except this building and yellow building around here and uh but uh it’s very outstanding building the other houses shops are built by wood. So this Greek western style beautiful building was the symbol of Hiroshima downtown. It exhibits the Hiroshima products. You know the they introduced the Hiroshima products like Kang sake. We are good at sake breweries and oysters. We Hiroshima people love this beautiful building at that time. But 1945 August 6 8:50 in the morning the bomb exploded. right above the this dome this structure you know the actual ground zero uh later we going to visit is one block away but explosion was so huge so this place is just under the explosion so blast came from the top the top was covered with the copper the copper melt at the lower temperature so melt the copper and blast escape from window. This building has many windows. So that’s why this building remains and I only exploded in the air uh two 2,000 ft above. It didn’t hit the ground. So we didn’t we don’t have any crater or something like that. So that’s why the we don’t have any uh radium on the ground only the radiation radiation stayed in human body and rubble. But it decreased so fast like uh 1 1,000 in 24 hours and 1 1 million in one week. Oh wow. Yeah, it’s so fast. But the total amount was so huge. So it affected to the human. Okay. But the next month in September we had a huge typhoon. Oh wow. So everyone start to rebuild the life but uh so many flood many people died but on the other hand I believe and the rain washed out the radiation so it is said by the end of the year no radiation remain but we we still have the survived tree. It’s amazing because uh it is no plants will grow for 75 years after the bombing but one month later the grass grow and some of the uh it’s supposed to be that those kind of trees sprout. So people had survivors built but those nature gave us hope to live. People come here and make a motor because many of the many most of the B people got burned heavily not only the outside inside too frog so they couldn’t speak so and they wanted to drink the water it’s contaminated. Yeah. So it’s contaminated and it is said if you give the water to the burned people they’re going to die. So the survivors couldn’t give them water. This is Hiroshima city. We have six rivers at that time. Seven rivers at that time. And this stop this is ground zero. This is where we are right now. Okay. And uh radius 1 kilometer people outside is instant death. It’s about 0.6 miles. So my father and family was in the house. So that’s why they survived and we within two kilome radius 2 kilometer which is uh 1.2 miles away from here. Uh 92% of the houses were gone. 8% left. The fire start 30 minutes after the bombing and it lasted hours and hours. So from from the other city they could see oh that is here from the city at night because it was orange. So the the fire burned everything from here. And so you from here you could see the island very very quiet silent like they were walking like zombie they couldn’t see and escape from the fire jump into the river but some of the some of the people’s skin was so shrink so they couldn’t swim and so my Mom was near the Hiroshima station. She was only the baby, you know, five month baby. My grandma holding my mom walking around Hiroshima station. She’s got bomb and she felt the chocolate and fell down and throw my mom away. But my mom was just a baby. So babies are so flexible. She didn’t get she didn’t get any harm. So she survived. And my grandma also survived. Yeah. But my dad was here 1 kilometer from here. So it’s I I didn’t think which kind of miracles survived. He didn’t tell me anything about it, but I understand. And they escaped. My father escaped to the north to see relatives and stayed there for a week. But they said the relative said okay, go back to your home because there was no uh not enough food and also there was a rumor some kind of weird disease is happening in Hiroshima. So my father might have some kind of contagious disease or something. So they were afraid. So my father has to come back to the city here. But there was nothing, no job. My mom having a four boys, little boys, how to survive. I think it was difficult. But my father, 9 years old boy, remembered uh his father like my my grandpa uh he hide a big sugar pot under his house. So my father remembered it and dig out the sugar pot and sell the sugar at the black market to buy the food. So this is a ground zero. We only have this stone because this is private property. And this is says Shima Hospital the small clinic you know the private clinic and it used to be Shima clean too and we didn’t know the exact ground zero at that time but the year later the scientists calculated and find found out where the exact ground zero is and Dr. Kashima on that day he went to the uh countryside to see the patient and when he came back he lost everything. He lost his hospital, other doctors, nurse, medicine and patient. All of them died. So he was so so devastated you know that’s so sad. But uh only 28 doctors and nurse remain in Hiroshima city. Oh wow. So he has to take care of the injured people. So he woke his heart so much and uh he decide to rebuild the hospital again because he didn’t wanted this hospital like a memorial place or something like that. You know he wants to cure the people. He wants to give the happiness to the people. So he did. He rebuilt the hostel again. and his right now his grandson is taking care of this hospital. Okay. So this is called flame of peace. Handh holding the flame. Can you see the shape? And uh fire is burning but it’s not the eternal flame. It shouldn’t be the eternal flame. It’s burning because we still have nuclear weapons on this earth. So if we can throw all the nuclear weapons in the future, nuclear weapons away in the future, we can turn that off. It’s a center for the victims. The arch is the symbol of this heart and uh there’s a stone chest under the arch. inside a stone ship there are so many notebooks which is uh all the victim’s name on it not only Japanese all for the foreigners too and uh at that time 1945 population of Hiroshima city is 350,000 and the name is right now uh 340,000 because the all the victims uh and the survivors through their name is going to add on the notebook. That’s why it’s every year adding the name on it. So my father, he died last year. So his name added on the notebook. Every time I bring my dog for a walk around here, but uh since last year, it makes me feel different. Oh, my father’s name inside. Yeah. And my mom, she’s alive though. But uh when she when she die her name is going to add on the notebook 815 8:15 and uh also those rebels are original and water and water water too. Why do you like giving these tours and is it very difficult for you to do? Yeah, but I think I have a responsible to share the stories to the others because we learned a lot and we know a lot and I want to create a peaceful world to share the stories and many people are very interested in what happened in Hiroshima and uh we need a different perspective perspectives and uh I I learned in the states and uh it’s kind of misunderstanding or you know the different perspective and I I don’t say that which one is good or bad you know that every everyone has their opinions and I just want you to show what happened and feel it by yourself and uh find out how you know find out the different perspective and how complicated what it was or something like So you can think and you can share in your country with your friends. So maybe we can meet you and uh you get a stories from from me and uh it’s different from the books or internet you can feel it right. So I think that’s the most important things. So I want you to feel it and share the stories. That’s why I started So the question I asked her was why does she do these tours having such a direct tie to the event that happened ending World War II? Is it difficult for her to talk about it? And I think her answer she just gave is a good example of how she feels. Mhm. And the one thing I really appreciated about what she had to say was she really tried to keep the politics out of it. Naturally, she’s very much against nuclear weapons and so forth. And I think that comes out, but I think she’s very careful not to criticize or put down anyone. And I think the people we found in Japan recognized the impact that that war really had on their country and really had on our country and the world and the world and and um you know one of the things that she said and you probably heard that on there. I’m just going to repeat it was that um the goal their goal here in Hiroshima is to have a world free of nuclear um bombs. Yeah. Just pure and simple. Just pure and simple. Well, this was a very different uh Lyn and Paul’s excellent adventure, but we really thought it was fitting since we came into port here in Hiroshima to really show you what is kind of the center of this town. Thank you for watching Lyn and Paul’s Excellent Adventure. Be sure to click the subscribe button and maybe the little reminder bell to remember every time we have a new episode coming out. Yeah. And tell your friends. and we’re we’re giving you all hugs. Miss you all and love you all. And we really appreciate you watching. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music]

In this special edition of Lynn and Paul’s Excellent Adventure, we visit Hiroshima, Japan, on the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II. Guided by a second-generation survivor, we hear firsthand family stories of survival, loss, and resilience in the aftermath of the atomic bombing.

We also share the Odyssey’s “Global Harmony” contribution: residents aboard our ship folded 1,000 origami cranes, a Japanese symbol of peace and healing, and presented them at the Hiroshima Peace Park.

This journey is not just about history—it is about remembrance, reflection, and the responsibility to work toward a world free of nuclear weapons.

✨ Join us as we walk through the Peace Park, stand at the Atomic Bomb Dome, and listen to voices that must never be forgotten.

#Travel #Hiroshima #Nagasaki #Peace #WorldWarII #Anniversary #Japan #LynnAndPaulsExcellentAdventure

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