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Japan Times
6 days ago
- Entertainment
- Japan Times
Saved from the worst, Kyoto still bears scars of war
Long before Hollywood and 'Oppenheimer' canonized the claim, Kyoto embraced the identity of a city spared from the ravages of World War II. In the 2023 movie, U.S. Secretary of War Henry Stimson casually removes the ancient capital from a list of potential targets for the atomic bomb, claiming he and his wife honeymooned there years previously. More probable is that Stimson was persuaded by dinner conversation with his cousin Henry Loomis, who emphasized Kyoto's numerous artistic and architectural treasures that he had learned of while studying Japanese history at Harvard. Loomis was perhaps under the tutelage of Japan specialist Langdon Warner, who was also credited as the savior of Nara and Kyoto and who, despite his protestations, is now enshrined in statuary in front of Nara's Horyuji Temple and Kamakura Station. Yet Kyoto was not completely unaffected by the air raids that devastated much of the rest of the country. During the first half of 1945, the city was indiscriminately bombed five times, resulting in 302 deaths and 563 injuries. Due to press censorship at the time, documentation is scarce, but the initial raid on the Umamachi neighborhood in the city's Higashiyama Ward appears to have left 36 dead and destroyed more than 140 houses. Today, a small monument stands in a schoolyard adjacent to the Four Seasons Kyoto.
NDTV
7 days ago
- General
- NDTV
80 Years Of Hiroshima And Nagasaki Bombings: Lesser Known Facts About Ground Zero
The United States dropped an atomic bomb called "Little Boy" on the Japanese city of Hiroshima on August 6, 1945, killing approximately 70,000 to 140,000 people instantly. Many died in the following months from injuries and radiation sickness. It's exactly been 80 years since an atomic bomb was used in war for the first time. The bombing of the western Japanese city of Hiroshima was followed by the bombing of Nagasaki three days later, which led to Japan's surrender and the end of World War II. Hiroshima Day, observed annually on August 6, is a day for the world to reflect on the humanitarian consequences of nuclear warfare. The Hiroshima bombing was a crucial moment in history, and its impacts are still felt. Here are some lesser-known facts about the tragic bombings Bombing Details and Bomb Characteristics: US B-29 bomber Enola Gay dropped the atomic bomb on August 6, 1945, at 8:15 am (local time). A bomb named "Fat Man" was dropped on Nagasaki on August 9 at 11:02 am (local time). Little Boy, a uranium-powered nuclear bomb, unleashed a surge of heat reaching 4,000 degrees Celsius (7,200 Fahrenheit). Meanwhile, Fat Man was a plutonium-powered nuclear bomb with an explosive power equivalent to 21 kilotons of TNT. Deaths and Scale of Destruction: Around 70,000 to 140,000 people in Hiroshima and 40,000 to 75,000 people in Nagasaki died instantly after the blast, which destroyed nearly 70 per cent of Hiroshima's buildings, including homes and businesses. Meanwhile, 44 per cent of Nagasaki was ruined. As of August 2024, Japan has recognised a total of 344,306 deaths in Hiroshima and 198,785 in Nagasaki, including those from radiation illness and injuries. Long-term Effects: The survivors were called "hibakusha". They suffered from radiation exposure, leading to an increased incidence of leukaemia, cancer and other chronic diseases. Hibakusha is a Japanese term meaning "bomb-affected people". The government announced several measures to support the survivors, but many faced discrimination within the country as people often refused to hire or marry them. In the decades following the attacks, rumours spread that Hibakusha carried diseases and their offspring could be tainted. Target Selection: The US chose Hiroshima and Nagasaki as targets due to their military significance and industrial importance. Hiroshima was the headquarters of some military units and a major supply base during World War II. US war planners calculated that the surrounding mountains would concentrate the force of the bomb and enhance its destructiveness. Nagasaki wasn't the prime target as authorities managed to put together a short list of four cities: Hiroshima, Kokura, Niigata and Kyoto. However, Secretary of War Henry Stimson changed the list. He apparently said that Kyoto was too important a cultural centre to be destroyed, but some reports noted that Henry had personal reasons, as he might have spent his honeymoon there. What Happened to the Plants: It was assumed that the Earth at Ground Zero would be dead after the bombings. But a report by Grunge mentioned that weeds appeared within a few months. It also noted that oleanders blossomed in the spring of 1946, and camphor trees also produced new growth.
Irish Times
04-08-2025
- Irish Times
‘Such a cruel sight': A visit to Hiroshima lives long in the memory
I have been to Japan twice. Once in the spring when the cherry blossoms appear, a beautiful transient phenomenon that ripples all too quickly across the length of the country as the 'sakura' season progresses. My favourite visit, though, was in autumn, a longer lasting season of mist, low cloud and melancholy as Japan's beautiful woods take on a searing russet and crimson colour scheme and the temperature drops. My son Oisín and I went to our first onsen or hot bath on a rainy night in Kyoto, the old capital of Japan with its 2,000 Buddhist temples and Shinto shrines. We had had a long day of sightseeing, including a visit to the stunning Shinto shrine of Fushimi Inari and its pathways lined with 10,000 vermilion gate posts, dedicated to Inari, the god of rice. It is set on a sacred hill dotted with statues of foxes, the messengers of the rice god. READ MORE Ahead of us in the rain, there was a phalanx of multicoloured umbrellas moving towards the same downtown onsen, a communal bathing place fed by the geothermal springs that dot Japan's volcanic islands. Many Irish rugby fans would have been exposed to the onsen and the Japanese custom of nude bathing during the Rugby World Cup of 2019, in which we were beaten by Japan in the group stage. It is also likely that the US secretary of war in 1945, Henry Stimson, had shared the onsen cultural experience during several visits to Kyoto before the second World War . His appreciation of the historical, cultural and religious importance of Kyoto as the ancient capital of Japan led him to persuade US president Harry Truman to reject the view of lieutenant-general Leslie Groves, the leader of the Manhattan Project, that Kyoto's industrial base justified its destruction. We arrived by bullet train from charming, old-world Kyoto into the gleaming metropolis of Hiroshima, a city the size of Dublin, rebuilt on the incinerated ashes and rubble of the old city of brick, timber and straw, which was founded in the 16th century. Once we checked into our tiny but tidy digs, we set out by foot to find evidence of the nuclear holocaust visited on the city 80 years ago. [ As an Irishman living in Japan, I watch the rise of anti-immigrant rhetoric with unease Opens in new window ] We made our way to the A-Bomb Dome, the skeletal remains of a popular pre-war municipal building that was once used for exhibitions. It is now fenced off, frozen in time, hosting the ghosts of those who were vaporised inside it at 8.15am on August 6th, 1945. That was the exact time that the first nuclear bomb was dropped on a civilian population causing unimaginable death, pain and misery. The lucky ones died in an instant; the rest suffered for years before their burns and cancers overcame their will to live. Many still survive and genetic defects have been transmitted to unlucky members of succeeding generations. Estimates vary but the final death toll may have been as many as 200,000, the vast majority civilians, including thousands of children. Another 35,000 people died when a second bomb was dropped on Nagasaki on August 9th. Across the river from the A-Bomb Dome is the National Peace Memorial Hall, a Unesco world heritage site. [ The Irishman who filmed Hiroshima and Nagasaki Opens in new window ] We shuffled through its exhibition rooms for two hours, almost in a trance at the graphic story which unfolded before us and the rest of the silent, slowly moving crowd of tourists and Japanese schoolchildren. The minutes, hours, days and years that followed the explosion are evoked with a quiet dignity that does not spare the viewer. On the day of the bombing a local newspaper photographer, 32-year-old Yoshito Matsushige, walked from his home into the city centre with his camera and took just five photographs. The viewfinder on his camera was clouded over with his tears. He later recalled: 'It was such a cruel sight that I couldn't bring myself to press the shutter. Perhaps I hesitated there for about 20 minutes, but I finally summoned up the courage to take one picture.' As I thought about the 80th anniversary I asked Oisín what he remembered of our visit six years ago. 'The tree that survived and the spot underneath where the bomb was dropped. And how well rebuilt the city is,' he texted me. On Wednesday, August 6th, as they have done every year since 1946, the people of Hiroshima will gather by the river near the Peace Bell to launch thousands of lanterns inscribed with the names of the dead and messages of peace. The city has become synonymous with advocacy for nuclear disarmament. At home here in Tramore, I will think of that luminous river in Hiroshima on a visit to the Lafcadio Hearn Japanese gardens to light a candle and curse the darkness that has left the world today with more than 12,000 nuclear weapons.
