Hongli Xu: Visiting the original Nagasaki Atomic Bomb place…

We went to the peace park in Nagasaki with all the international students and some Japanese students last week. It was a very unique experience for me because I was shocked by some of the facts which occurred by humans. Before entering the part, we went to Nagasaki University. They showed us a video which shows how miserable people were when the atomic bomb was dropped. Thousands of people died immediately. What’s more, the radiation affect also lasting for decades… later, one of the survivors told us her experience in person. She lost 9 family members from atomic bombs. She was the only one survived from the incident. Fortunately, she was able to survive and have her own family. She has two sons.

The Peace Park was made to remember the chaos moment in the history, and to remind people the pain from war. After we get to know the history a little, we went to the original place where the atomic bomb was dropped. When I was standing on the center of the original place, I had a mix feeling about the historical moment. The guide told us that people who suffers from the pain wanted water the most at that time, but they wasn’t able to get any clean water. Thus, there was a fountain in the park and another fountain around the peace statue. It means people who died from the atomic bomb will have clean water forever. Also, the peace statue’s two gestures have special meanings. The statue’s right hand is horizontally pointing in the sky, and it means the atomic bomb from the sky is dangerous.  The statue’s left hand is vertically pointing to his left side, and it means peaceful.

Before going home we went to the history museum as well. At the museum I learned that there are a lot of countries have atomic bombs and testing the atomic bombs for about 2056 times in total. It really makes me think why these countries would keep these atomic bombs. It was a difficult day for me, but we got a change to go around and spend time with friends. I was happy that I can participate this event.   (I met Juliette on this day^^)