Nagasaki, Japan 2023

• By Barry & Allyn Shulman
• On March 22, 2023
• 3 Comments.

Touring Nagasaki is all about the 1945 Atomic Bomb.

The Peace Park has moving sculptures from all over the world. Its entire focus is peace. The 33-foot Nagasaki Peace Statue is quite a welcome.

These are just a smattering of other moving pieces.

The Atomic Bomb Museum covers the facts of the destruction. I couldn’t find any mention of the cause. I recall learning about the Vietnam War while visiting there and feeling shame and wondering why we were there in the first place.

Here I said to myself  “Well, you started it.”

Some more info if you choose:

Everybody knows that WWII was brutal. Finally in August it seemed like the U.S. and its allies had the upper hand and things were coming an end. The trouble was that Japan refused to surrender unconditionally. American casualties were still adding up and the Soviet Union was entering the war to pick up some spoils.

The (non-atomic) bombing of Tokyo in March 1945 created mass killing and devastation but looked like many of our ground troops would have to enter the war to end it.

The atomic bomb decision was extremely heavy for Truman. Following that came yet another tough decision as to where to drop the bomb. There needed to be military as well as psychological consequences.

Kyoto was passed for historical reasons. Hiroshima was a very significant and the first target. Kokura was chosen as the second target in a couple days. Weather did not cooperate. Running short of fuel, they were going to drop the bomb at the secondary target, Nagasaki, just using radar. It finally cleared up a bit. The rest is history.