Tragic History and 1st Baseball match - Journey in Hiroshima Part 1

Genbanku (or A-bomb) Dome and Peace Memorial Museum
This may be the first post which is really hard to write. Not because of a linguistic problem, but because of an emotional one. Whenever I learnt about history in Germany, the most common topic was war. Which reasons existed, what was the cause, what happened before, during and after the war. Sadly, war seems to be the only thing why humanity developed after all.

But there is a fudamental difference between hearing about war, even if it has happened in the same place where you are, or coming to a place where war has been engraved and therefore is still present somehow, even if this war is not linked to your homecountry. This is what I learnt by coming to Hiroshima.

About 100 meter, directly over this building, exploded the atomic bomb

To be fair, the use of the atomic bomb over Hiroshima is one of the cruelest things which humans have done. So having an emotional reaction seems to be normal. But it actually wasn't the event itself which shocked me so much, it was the "reason".

There is never a real reason to use an atomic bomb, but I could slightly understand (but never agree to) the use if there is an overwhelming threat you cannot stop otherwise. But as stated in original protocols the main reason was testing their new invention on people. It wasn't enough to nuke in the Bikini Atoll, to measure the true war potential they wanted a realistic test on humans ... ... ... ... actually, I don't have any words for this.

A watch which was present at the explosion.
Through the EMP which comes at first, it stopped exactly at this time.

By the way, the museum of the Hiroshima Peace Memorial is one of the best museums I've ever been to. Not because of the attractions or design, but because of the presentation of those events. Epecially at the topic of guilt. Who was guilty that the atomic bomb was dropped? The USA because they wanted to test their invention? Or Japan because of their aggressive colonial policy? The museum declares no single guilt but guilt for every party involved. Which is still astonishing for me, after all especially Hiroshima could have easily blamed only the USA which dropped the bomb. But they did not.

I can only recommend you visiting this place. Outside at the memorial were also many reports of survivors who desccribed not only their stories around the atomic bomb, but also their feelings and thoughts during the bombing raids before. I actually had to pause after some, because I got really depressive just by slightly imagine the things that were written there.

Art from Kids in Memory of the Event

Ahh sorry, I forgot to mention how I came to Hiroshima in the first place. Kazuki-san, a friend of my co-worker Yurie-san and AIESEC member, organized this trip for me and Niko. We started in the morning with the Shinkansen from Tokyo and arrived about 10am in Hiroshima. We just went to our hotel, left our luggage in the lobby and went straight to the Genbanku Dome or A-bomb Dome.

Baseball Match
After this, we went to the baseball stadium to watch the match with some local AIESECers ^^
I never saw a baseball match until this day, so at first I had to find out the rules by watching the match closely. Sure, I could've asked but where is the fun in it? ;)

Anyway, after about 90 minutes or so, I figured the most rules out together with Niko who also struggled :D Baseball is really exciting, if you know the rules ;)
Okay, but it is also long. And I mean long long. Watching a soccer match for 90 minutes with a half time between, no problem. Watching baseball for 4 hours straight is .... quite exhausting at first :D

Never thought to see that live :)

So everyone stands up after a while and walks through the stadium. Seeing the match from the top is really nice, but it's better in my opinion to be at the ground. Just feels closer ^^
Of course, there is also much merchandise to buy, but ... my luggage is getting too stuffed for my flight :D No, actually it feels strange for me to buy merchandise from a group I barely know. But hey, maybe I'm getting into a fan after this match ^^

Was quite hard to get this shot ^^

The best part of the match wasn't something from the match itself but the audience in the stadium. I was at some soccer matches in Germany, so I know the usual atmosphere in a stadium, packed with hundreds of hardcore fans ;) But actually the Japanese audience seems to be ... louder, more lively, more excited ^^ Thank God they don't seem to have hooligans there :D

The Audience

There was one really funny ritual: Near the end of the match, during a break between the sessions, the anthem of the Hiroshima Carps (the local team) was sung by the fans (and me roughly) and displayed on the big screens. Before this everyone had inflated a strange balloon (longish). After the anthem, everyone just released their balloons and a swarm of red ... fish-like balloons (I suppose) went into the air ^^

Overall, it was very exciting and I am really eager to see another baseball match if the chance occurs :) At the end of the day, we went into a restaurant where we met some other AIESECers too. There we drank, ate, talked, ... you know, the usual stuff ;)

And by the way, our hotel was looking like a 4-star hotel and the price was quite cheap. Well, we had a special offer which Kazuki found (Hotel and Shinkansen in one package). Pro tip for Japan travelers: Learn Japanese or at least use an online dictionary and search these kind of deals in the internet. Didn't know they exist and I probably could've saved a lot of money during my time here ^^