Nagasaki was the second, and last, city to be hit with an atomic bomb. I'll get into more detail about this in a later post, but for today, a quick look at one of the effects of the bomb.
For this location, you have to climb one of Nagasaki's many hills. This is a residential neighborhood with a view of the rest of the city, and a Ferris wheel on top of a mall.
Looking a bit further to the right, towards downtown.
Heading towards my destination, I came across this post on an old sidewalk.
It turns out that I found a historic route through Nagasaki, the old Urakami Road.
Nearby is my destination, sitting at the top of some steps. It's the One Pillar Torii. Some call it the One Legged Torii.
This sign documents all the pieces that broke off, and shows you what the torii (gate) looked like before the atomic blast.
Amazingly, one side of the torii remained standing, despite missing half of its support. Not much else was left in the area. (Enlarge to read text.)
Here's the same view today.
All the pieces are nearby, arranged as seen in one of the plaques above.
The one-pillar torii is the most beautiful remnant of the Nagasaki a-bomb damage, similar to the
A-Bomb Dome in Hiroshima. While it's a bit of a walk from the hypocenter, it's worth it to see the torii still standing at the top of the stairs.
I was stationed at Pearl Harbor and was reminded daily of the attack of December 7, 1941. It's interesting and enlightening to see momuments to the horror that came from that terrible time in history.
ReplyDeletePATP: I have to struggle with the knowledge that Japan basically started this war, but on the other hand I'm seeing all the destruction and hearing the stories of the suffering of Japanese citizens. Since I've never been to Hawaii, I really haven't seen the US side. I certainly don't feel guilty over it, but it's hard to figure out how to place my emotions. That said, the Japanese people were essentially misled and almost brainwashed into believing that they would be victorious in the war and that Japan needed to conquer all these other countries to survive.
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