Hiroshima Travelogue - Episode 3

It is pleasantly sultry. In the morning we leave for a museum called the “The Center of the Tokyo Raids and Was Damage”. It's a small 3-story building. A polite old woman welcomes us in. We take the steps to the second floor and take a seat. A film is being displayed about the horrific bombing of Tokyo by US forces. During the wee small hours of March 10 1945, almost 300 B-29 fighters bombarded Shitamachi town in Tokyo. They say over 100,000 died in the US-made hell and some one million were displaced as a result of the bombing. The air strike, according to the museum's guide book, is one of the 100 aerial bombings of Tokyo by US fighters. The places where the bombs fell are marked in a large map of the city. The film is a recreated documentary about a mother trying to salvage her children. Burned, ploughed ground is only thing left of Tokyo as it is shown in the movie.

All the museum staff are elderly. They say they have volunteered to work in the museum, which is run by contributions from people interested in preserving remnants of the dreadful event. The museum is constructed at one of the most devastated areas of the city. Some of the staff are survivors of the bombardment.

A man with grey hair tells me they have their own issues managing the museum. "Sometimes mediocre research budgets are offered by government officials. We have gathered the memories of some 30 of the survivors. Student groups may drop by to visit here, but tourists never come around."

We are still sitting. Alireza Yazdan Panah, whose lungs are the storehouse of chemical coughs, gets up. He coughs at the start and begins with the name of God. He utters some sentences with all the hardship from his damaged lungs: "I was 9 when Iraqi forces invaded Iran. I went to the front at the age of 16 when the war was about to reach an end. In a chemical assault, I severely hurt my eyes and lungs and had my skin burnt. We, too, are concerned with war and invasion at Tehran Peace Museum. We don’t wish any other nation to go through such bitter experiences."

He coughs his speech to the end.

An aged woman, 82, is a survivor of Tokyo bombing. She says she was 14 and a high school student when the incident happened. "At that time, we imagined nothing but the victory of the emperor. To that effect, I dropped out of school and started out a career in a factory. We worked tirelessly and believed that we would betray our country if we rested. On March 10, a bomb fell near our house. My father decided that we should migrate. It took us a day to walk to the station. There, I saw a real burnt city. The streets could not be figured out. Many others had walked to the station before us. We went to Shimane. I sewed army uniforms. I could not keep on my studies. Six of my teachers and 26 of my classmates died in the bombing."

"We had a plan for our victory," said the old woman peacefully. "But we had no plan for a loss. We did not even imaging a failure in the war. We had every faith to our victory. We regarded the US and the UK as enemies. In fact, all foreigners were considered enemies. I should say I think differently now. Today, I would like to tell you that we should be friends and colleagues to each other."

I get up to walk about the small museum. There are pictures, frames, documents, garments, shrapnel, etc. behind glasses and on the war. We spend about half an hour in the three stories of the museum. I safely shake a hand with the old woman when saying goodbye.

We received a handmade, paper bird. The bird is made in memory of Sadako, a girl killed in Hiroshima Atomic Bombardment.

To be continued…

By Habibollah Behboudi
Translated into English by Abbas Hajihashemi