Monday, October 26, 2015

Hiroshima and Miyajima Island Oct 14-16, 2015

We open this blog the only way we can, with the tragedy of Hiroshima, which has since become a miracle through its rebirth and renaissance.

Not the warmest pict, but perhaps the most poignant.
This bike belonged to a boy just a month shy of his fourth birthday. He was incinerated by the blast. His father didn't want his son to be alone in his death, so he buried him in the backyard with his bicycle and helmet. In 1985, foury years later, the father dug his son and bike up, donating the bike and helmet to the Peace Memorial Museum.

We hadn't realized Hiroshima was such a big city. Yet it's tranquil, well laid out and even more orderly than other places we've gone. Its got some great cultural sites and because of five rivers and hills on three sides, geographically it's quite attractive. 

The Atomic Bomb Dome, venerable symbol of the first bomb's devastation.

After and before, when it was considered a modern marvel.

The Children's Peace Memorial

Ten year old Sadako was dying of cancer resulting from the bomb. But he believed that if he could make 1000 origami cranes, he would survive. He achieved the 1000 cranes, but no miracle cure happened. Since then children from around the world in an act of peace, make and send origami cranes to the memorial.

There's no sugar coating what happened to Hiroshima. The American deliberately chose a city that was pristine, unbombed and knowing there were tens of thousands of women and children, as well as American POWs and Korean slave labourers. They came in with 3 planes. One loaded with the bomb, 2 others to observe and gather scientific data. The body count was 80,000 immediate deaths, another 60,000 within days, and 1000s more over time. Why they didn't choose a military installation to send the same message remains incomprehensible to us.

The Peace Park and Museum are sobering, incredibly moving with indelible impressions...more so than the Holocaust Memorial in Berlin or the War Museum in Hanoi. But the 1000s of children who go everyday is a national exercise in remembrance. The awe in their faces and nervous giggles as they see such things as statues of children with skin burnt off and fat dripping off is .
wondrous to see.

Of note is how the museum's English translation acknowledged Japan's aggression and initiation of the war. We wonder if the Japanese version is similar.

Meal time in Hiroshima:
Trish went 13 days before she had to have a non- Japanese meal, breaking down during a 2 day western bed break in Kyoto on way to Hiroshima. Eggs Benny, which she gave thumbs up. I had a Japanese curry in a curry house. Won't be doing that again. It's like going to remote China and ordering spaghetti bolognese. Stick with what you do best.

Every region has variations on dishes. Here in Hiroshima there's a fiery sauce that you dip your dry ramen into. Think I look funny, you should've seen the salaryman doing this.

The Yuka family:
We did a homestay with a 3 generation family in the burbs of Hiroshima, near the ferry to Miyajima Island.
Yuka lived in Oz and Thailand before she married a man from Kryzkstan, eventually returning to her roots in Hiroshima. Raise your hand if you've ever spent an evening with someone from Kryzkstan. Together they have an energetic 5yr old, and Yuka's 70 year old mom pops over often (there she is below). Feeling bored but energetic Grandma learned to make bags. Trish gave her loads of advice about design and marketing for tourists (which granny has taken) though she already has the skills and personality to be successful, having already sold hundreds of bags at the local market. 

We asked Yuka about the war. It's not addressed in the same way that Germany made atonement a national movement. Yuka's grandmother knew little about how and what the blast was. State and then American control of information limited awareness. Which seems to suit the current  and past Japanese mantra of non-confrontation, keep your head down, and ask no questions.
The interesting thing about interracial marriages in Japan is that they are almost always to a white guy. Japanese men don't go for the white meat and Japanese women like English speaking boyfriends. Kinda stereotypical, especially when one sees Yuka as a stay at home mom with a white dude going off to the office. But I sense she's no meek, submissive wife as we're sure she would take no guff from her opinionated husband, whom I really liked. 
Yuka is a wonderful woman. Kind, gentle, non confrontational, accomodating. Very Japanese in other words.
Her mom was born months after the bomb. But because her mother lived in the hills outside the blast zone, serious developmental delay didn't happen. Awareness, education about the war continue to be at a surface level.

MIYAJIMA ISLAND
Located ten minutes by ferry from suburban Hiroshima, it inspires awe and venerance to those who go or want to go.

To approach it, you come upon one of the most photographed objects in Japan, the Torii Gate. Here it guards the UNESSCO site of the Itsukushima Shrine, originally incanted in the 6th century. The shrine was designed and built on pier-like structures over the bay so that it would appear to be floating on the water, separate from the sacred island, which could be approached by the devout.

As seen from the descent of Mt Misen



Itsukushima Shrine, it's really old. And that's about all we remember. We've seen so many beautiful temples and shrines with so much history, belonging this sect, Buddhist or Shinto, influenced by that dude, patronized by that big wig...that we can't remember anything anymore except that they are all old and stunning. 


It seemed like wherever we went there was a traditional festival going on. Here the dragon dance is probably pilfered from the Chinese lion dance... But it's also way more athletic.

We forget the name of this Noh performance. But it's supposed to act out key events in Shinto lore...we think. It got pretty intolerable and repetitive.

Atop Mt Misen looking out over Hiroshima Bay...if you squint you may see slivers in the were that are oyster farms.

 
The approach to Daisoin Temple, which we had all to ourselves as we arrived late in the day...our absolute fav on an island liberally doted with temples and shrines.


 Multi-storied pagodas are more Chinese-like in origin as its more typical for Temples and shrines here to have perhaps 1 or 2 stories.

This holy fire, which Kobo Daishi (big Buddha dude) used as part of his religious training, is burning now after 1,200 years in the Kiezu-no-Reikado Hall. It is said that holy water boiled with this fire works for all sorts of diseases. It was also used as the pilot light for the Flame of Peace in Hiroshima’s Peace Memorial Park.

White privilege?
In a country so steeped in tradition and binding social institutions, an unrequited love of the white western world would seem to be the ultimate contradiction.
About one in 3 women dye their hair brown. White skin is desireable. Western celebrities are treated like rock stars. Ok some of them are. Manga and anime (animation) which all kids grow up obsessing, are adorned with characters with Caucasian features and massive boobs for the femmes.

However the Japanese throughout history have been masters at integrating foreign ideas, concepts, technology and even food into their islands, then making it their own, and often improving them. Buddhism, calligraphy and  architecture from China and Korea are easy examples. Oh yeah, Karaoke is Korean, too. And of course technology and auto making from the west. Remember when we scoffed at anything made in Japan?

Speaking of white privilege, Trish gets a free pass when it comes to looking clueless and breaking the many rules. For example, she gets to eat and drink on the bus, she gets to jaywalk, and she gets to hold my hand. Me? I get to hold her bags.

Next:
Kurashiki

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