Our first stop in Nagasaki was, of course, the Atomic Bomb Museum. Two summers ago, Matt and I visited the Pearl Harbor Memorial. I remember reading signs of the devastation alongside Japanese tourists and wondering what they were feeling about seeing the other side of things. Then, this fall we visited Peace Park in Hiroshima and now, Nagasaki. This time around, I was the foreigner of course, standing alongside Japanese people, reading of the horrific pains their people have suffered. I can't say what the Japanese visitors felt at Pearl Harbor, but I know I felt an overwhelming sense of reverence for what they've endured and a desire for this history to never repeat itself. I would have hugged everyone in that museum if they would have let me.
Hand bones melted into rock.
Roof tiles that got so hot they bubbled.
Melted Rosaries.
A clock stopped exactly at 11:02, when the atomic bomb hit.
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