Japan Society Educator's Tour - Day 10 (Hiroshima & Osaka)
I wonder if I'll ever finish these entries. ^_^;;
Today was yet another tough day, at least in the morning.
We returned to the Peace Museum and went to the auditorium where there was a small TV crew set up. They were going to document the meeting. An elderly gentleman entered the room and that's when we met Hito-san. He was 76 years old and he was in the equivalent of 5th grade at the time of the bombing.
In a quiet, calm tone of voice, he began to tell us about his older brother who died as a result of the bombing. He'd been in school in Hiroshima at the time because the older children had to come to the city in order to tear down flammable buildings and make fire breaks, in case of a fire.
When the bomb dropped, his brother wasn't burned, but the school building fell on top of him. Somehow he was able to dig his way out and was greeted with a vision from hell. Many people were burnt over most of their body, while others had skin literally dripping from their bodies. His brother tried to help some of the other children who were trapped under the school, but by then it was on fire and it got too hot for him to help them. He left, hearing their voices calling out for help.
He walked home that day, 10 km, and collapsed when he got to the door. Although exhausted, he appeared to recover after a week. He would tell Hito-san about the things he'd seen. Unfortunately, a few weeks later, his older brother was removing his hat when their mother noticed that his hair was falling out. So she decided to shave his head and noticed that his skull had gotten softer. He developed black spots over his body and would bleed from his nose. On September 1st, around 11:10 AM, he died.
This was a picture of his brother.
Hito-san told us about his own experiences as well. The reason he wasn't home when his brother arrived was because he was at the country school. He remembered a great flash and a huge sound and yelling, "It's so hot!" Although his teacher told him to go home, he stayed. Bodies driven in by truck, soon arrived. He worked at applying a vegetable salve on the burnt skin to ease their pain, but most of them died anyway.
Eventually he grew up and started his own family. He had two sons. He became a banker of some kind, and his oldest son, Kazushige followed in his footsteps. He got a job with Fuji Bank, working on the 82nd floor of the South Tower at the World Trade Center.
Yeah.
For the second time in his life, Hito-san experienced another gorund zero. They never found his remains. Instead, they gave Hito-san some of the ash from the site.
He then brought out an urn and showed it to us. He told us that until they found his son's remains, this was all they had to remember him by.
There wasn't a dry eye. Even the camera crew were struggling to contain their emotions. It was difficult to hear, but I was grateful to have heard his story.
Next, we went to the location where his brother went to school. It was now an elementary school instead of a high school, and we met with the principal so that we could honor Hito-san's brother (and the other children who died) at a memorial on the grounds.
Afterwards, Hito-san came to lunch with us. We went to a hotel near the train we would be riding to go to Osaka. Our main suitcases went ahead to Kyoto, thanks to Takubin, but we kept our small ones for the one day more that we stayed in Hiroshima.
He was very gracious and took -pictures with all of us. He even helped to carry Karen's suitcase through the station much to her chagrin. So she compromised and carried it with him.
In Osaka, we split into two groups. One group was supposed to see a baseball game while the other one was going to a Kabuki performance. I chose Kabuki, but I kinda wanted to see the baseball game and regreted my choice. At first!
It was pretty much girls only. Kazuko, Valerie, Gabriella, Heather, Karen and me. Rob, Jason, the other Liz and George went to the game. (although George was supopsed to come with us, but he was allowed to change his mind.)
We would find out later that the posters at the kabuki theatre were showing all the characters from their current production. Inside, we weren't allowed to take pictures during the performance, but I took a few before and after so that I could have images of the inside of the theatre.
The performance was very long - about 4 hours. But there was a long break in between the acts and we bought bento boxes for our dinner.
The first act almost made us want to leave- it was like, extreme kabuki. All the actors did was huge "mie" poses as they gave long monologues. Mie is when a kabuki actor makes a larger than life pose and holds it for about 30-45 seconds, frozen, so that the audience can appreciate his expertise. But it was completely unitelligible Japanese.
Luckily the second story was an actual storyline that we could follow because it was acted more naturally. So we stayed.
When the performance was over, we explored Osaka at night. Apparently the big Glico sign is a kinda of special landmark in Osaka, so I took its picture. but I also wanted to take a picture of the Harry Potter movie sign too.
Afterwards, we returned to Kyoto and went back to our hotel. Sleep at last! Sooo busy.
Today was yet another tough day, at least in the morning.
We returned to the Peace Museum and went to the auditorium where there was a small TV crew set up. They were going to document the meeting. An elderly gentleman entered the room and that's when we met Hito-san. He was 76 years old and he was in the equivalent of 5th grade at the time of the bombing.
In a quiet, calm tone of voice, he began to tell us about his older brother who died as a result of the bombing. He'd been in school in Hiroshima at the time because the older children had to come to the city in order to tear down flammable buildings and make fire breaks, in case of a fire.
When the bomb dropped, his brother wasn't burned, but the school building fell on top of him. Somehow he was able to dig his way out and was greeted with a vision from hell. Many people were burnt over most of their body, while others had skin literally dripping from their bodies. His brother tried to help some of the other children who were trapped under the school, but by then it was on fire and it got too hot for him to help them. He left, hearing their voices calling out for help.
He walked home that day, 10 km, and collapsed when he got to the door. Although exhausted, he appeared to recover after a week. He would tell Hito-san about the things he'd seen. Unfortunately, a few weeks later, his older brother was removing his hat when their mother noticed that his hair was falling out. So she decided to shave his head and noticed that his skull had gotten softer. He developed black spots over his body and would bleed from his nose. On September 1st, around 11:10 AM, he died.
This was a picture of his brother.
Hito-san told us about his own experiences as well. The reason he wasn't home when his brother arrived was because he was at the country school. He remembered a great flash and a huge sound and yelling, "It's so hot!" Although his teacher told him to go home, he stayed. Bodies driven in by truck, soon arrived. He worked at applying a vegetable salve on the burnt skin to ease their pain, but most of them died anyway.
Eventually he grew up and started his own family. He had two sons. He became a banker of some kind, and his oldest son, Kazushige followed in his footsteps. He got a job with Fuji Bank, working on the 82nd floor of the South Tower at the World Trade Center.
Yeah.
For the second time in his life, Hito-san experienced another gorund zero. They never found his remains. Instead, they gave Hito-san some of the ash from the site.
He then brought out an urn and showed it to us. He told us that until they found his son's remains, this was all they had to remember him by.
There wasn't a dry eye. Even the camera crew were struggling to contain their emotions. It was difficult to hear, but I was grateful to have heard his story.
Next, we went to the location where his brother went to school. It was now an elementary school instead of a high school, and we met with the principal so that we could honor Hito-san's brother (and the other children who died) at a memorial on the grounds.
Afterwards, Hito-san came to lunch with us. We went to a hotel near the train we would be riding to go to Osaka. Our main suitcases went ahead to Kyoto, thanks to Takubin, but we kept our small ones for the one day more that we stayed in Hiroshima.
He was very gracious and took -pictures with all of us. He even helped to carry Karen's suitcase through the station much to her chagrin. So she compromised and carried it with him.
In Osaka, we split into two groups. One group was supposed to see a baseball game while the other one was going to a Kabuki performance. I chose Kabuki, but I kinda wanted to see the baseball game and regreted my choice. At first!
It was pretty much girls only. Kazuko, Valerie, Gabriella, Heather, Karen and me. Rob, Jason, the other Liz and George went to the game. (although George was supopsed to come with us, but he was allowed to change his mind.)
We would find out later that the posters at the kabuki theatre were showing all the characters from their current production. Inside, we weren't allowed to take pictures during the performance, but I took a few before and after so that I could have images of the inside of the theatre.
The performance was very long - about 4 hours. But there was a long break in between the acts and we bought bento boxes for our dinner.
The first act almost made us want to leave- it was like, extreme kabuki. All the actors did was huge "mie" poses as they gave long monologues. Mie is when a kabuki actor makes a larger than life pose and holds it for about 30-45 seconds, frozen, so that the audience can appreciate his expertise. But it was completely unitelligible Japanese.
Luckily the second story was an actual storyline that we could follow because it was acted more naturally. So we stayed.
When the performance was over, we explored Osaka at night. Apparently the big Glico sign is a kinda of special landmark in Osaka, so I took its picture. but I also wanted to take a picture of the Harry Potter movie sign too.
Afterwards, we returned to Kyoto and went back to our hotel. Sleep at last! Sooo busy.