A sobering day trip to Hiroshima from Kyoto with children

Should we take the children with us to Hiroshima? We felt that learning about the effects of the atom bombs on the Japanese people first hand was important. Equally we concluded that Odessa, seven years old at the time, was a little young for this trip. So while Helen took Odessa to see the abundant sacred deer at Nara, Jim and Rafe took a day trip from Kyoto to Hiroshima.

In retrospect we think we were right to take Odessa elsewhere, while Rafe at almost ten was just about ok. Everyone will be different in this, adults and children alike. The Hiroshima Peace Museum is especially challenging.

Hiroshima Peace Museum

Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum is within the wider Peace Memorial Park on what is actually a longitudinal island in the Motoyasu River. Immediately over the river to the east is what is known as the ‘hypocenter’, the epicentre of the a-bomb detonation, and just to the north is the famous Atomic Dome which partially survives to this day. The juxtaposition of these two places amongst the buildings, hustle and bustle of modern day Hiroshima seemed to sharpen the impact even further, if that were possible.

The Museum is especially harrowing as it powerfully conveys its message of “no more Hiroshimas” by telling individual stories of destruction, survivable and long term pain all supported by remains and personal artefacts. Be under no illusions about how impactful this is – difficult for adults, let alone older children.

Incredibly, we learnt that barely 1kg of the 64kg (~1.5%) of enriched uranium contained in the “Little Boy” bomb actually underwent nuclear fission when it detonated over the city. It was striking to see the small size of that 1kg of dense material right after the main body of the museum which focusses on the personal stories, conveyed to us the destruction it wrought.

Nearby in the same display area we saw a reproduction of a document which is important for a several reasons. The British effort to build a functioning nuclear weapon went under the codename Tube Alloys. This minute initialled by US President Franklin D. Roosevelt and Winston Churchill confirms that the US and the UK should continue working on the project after the war, that the cooperation should remain top secret, and most notably that the nuclear weapon should be used against Japan when it became available.

The Hiroshima Peace Museum does a powerful job of conveying the indiscriminate destruction wrought on the Japanese people immediately, in the aftermath and the longer term consequences. Naturally and rightly this is its focus. Its mission to encourage “no more Hiroshimas” is the very necessary counterpoint to the equally widely held view that while abhorrent, the atomic bombs dropped on Japan shortened the war and saved lives by obviating the need for a massive and doubtless brutally fought occupation of mainland Japan. These two views are not necessarily binary, they can both be true, and indeed this position is thought to have been held in the highest offices of the United States at the time by none other than William D. Leahy, Chief of Staff to the President and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs.

The ‘Atomic Dome’

The Atomic Dome, or Hiroshima Prefectural Industrial Promotion Hall to give it its original name, was one of the very few buildings to survive in any way the bomb dropped on Hiroshima. This is all the more remarkable since it was only 150m from the hypocenter. This close location in some ways helped the preservation of the building as the blast effectively bore down on the building from above and the steel girder construction proved immensely strong in compression. Unfortunately no-one inside the building at the time survived with the structure. Today the Atomic Dome is perhaps the most iconic image of the effects of nuclear war and has been preserved in this state to serve as a reminder of the destructive power of nuclear weapons. For Rafe and me it was incredible to see it in person, right next to the gently burbling flow of the river and the hum of the main road nearby.

How we did it

Depending on the particular train one takes, Hiroshima central station is anywhere between ninety minutes and almost two hours from Kyoto. With our Japan Rail Passes in hand we booked seats for a shinkansen the day before, although travelling midweek out of peak season we didn’t actually need to reserve – we could have easily got seats just turning up on the day. Note that with the JR Pass you can travel without supplement on the frequent Tokaido and Sanyo shinkansens. These are remarkable trains, superfast and comfortable. You can’t travel on the Nozomi shinkansens with the JR Pass, although we understand that sometime in 2023 this will be possible if paying a supplement on top of the already pricey JR Pass itself. While even quicker between Kyoto and Hiroshima, the time difference between these and the other shinkansen trains is pretty negligible.

Once at Hiroshima central station it is a good half hour or so walk to the part of town by the river where the atom bomb memorial and museum is. We walked, but there were also plentiful bus options that can be taken, and your Welcome Suica card is valid. Along the route from the station towards the hypocenter of the explosion there are a couple of points where memorials now lie telling the story of the impact of the atomic bomb on that particular location.