Red Heart

There are something you can only think about during day, there are some books you can only read at night. Some books you can't read at night, such as John Hersey's Hiroshima.

I remember very well my feeling when I first read that book. It was like cotton stuck in my chest and I could not breathe. What is autonomic bomb? What happened after the bombing? Hersey's book showed us: children had a handful peanuts before the night of bombing, and afterwards the only food was the pumpkin cooked by the heat of bombing; persist was reading his favorite daily , and later he was running only in his underwear from the crashing house; husband lost his wife and son; mother slept with her dead baby and would not let it go; then the dead bodies piled up in the river, some died from burning, some died from the poisoning of radiation water.

In one word, autonomic bomb=death.

Hersey's book makes me wanna to go to Hiroshima to see to hear what happened there. So there I was last week.

I thought I was in some where else. It is such a dynamic, blooming, and well developed city. If there's miracle. I think that is what I see in Hiroshima. The wealth of the city can compare to Tokyo, the bars street in Horikawa of Hiroshima is better than Shimbashi of Tokyo in my eyes. The style of the city can compare Boston, at least the street car system are so similar. The fashion of the city can compare to Kyoto, the fancy dresses from men and women in Hodori street of Hiroshima remind me of the main street of Kyoto's Gion corner.

But something does not change is the same seven rivers are still running through Hiroshima. Green, quiet the river is, such a opposite image of the busy city. Then near the rebuilt Aioi Bridge, A-bomb Dome has been there since 8:15am August 6th, 1945. Today it becomes one entrance of the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park. Over a Million tourists visit here every year. The Hiroshima Memorial Museum displayed the facts why and how America decided to bomb Hiroshima.

Nothing in the museum is very dark or bitter, only some left-over small clothes of dead children, one human shadow left on some stone steps make your nose become very sour and your heart turn to cold. All tells one thing: the war is cruel and we should avoid such inhuman thing.

I love the most is the energy of Hiroshima. It's so encouraging that you feel Hiroshima is sunny everyday.

And I can't forget a group of Hiroshima young teenagers hold their guitars and stand under Aioi Bridge, singing every weekends. Next to them is the Ota-gawa River used to stuck of human bodies 65 years ago. The teenagers seem to ignore that dark memory. Their singing is mostly about love. The warmness of the songs melts the shadow of the river.

Nobody I met in Hiroshima said they are anti America.

Hate can destroy lives, but love can create a future.