Japan Special Convention 2013: Day 11

Today we left early to take the 2-hour trip to Hiroshima (pronounced Hear - ohhh' - shee - muh). Us Americans have a couple of different ways we like to say it. This was pretty profound. The first picture below I don't remember seeing in any history class, but it is the only building where something survived the blast. It was at the epicenter - the bomb exploded over it and pushed down. So some of the core withstood the blast. It was a government building. It is a very eerie site. We also toured the museum, which was very crowded as it was August 9th - the anniversary of the bombing in Nagasaki. A few days before on the 6th was the anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima. History is always fascinating. It was a horrible thing that affected people for years! But when you read about the history, Japan was abusing it's power on other nations. So again seeing the futility of war and man's need to dominate one another, and the need for God to step in.

Alec's story:
While dad and I were walking from the dome building to the museum, an old man (probably about 85 years old) came up and introduced himself to us. He basically comes every year for the anniversary, and he tells people his story. Apparently, when he was about 16 (I think) is when the bomb hit. He was staying with a friend who lived just outside the blast zone at the time. His mother was at their home near where the bomb exploded, his father and little brother were out and about. All of them died in the blast. A day after the horrific tragedy, he returned to the city to search for his family. He stumbled over dead bodies; everything around him was ruins. He searched and searched, but his family was gone. I am not sure how he survived the radiation, he must not have stayed long enough for it to affect him that badly. His point to the story was, it is never right to drop a bomb on an entire city. How true that is . . .