visiting the site of the atomic bomb in nagasaki caused a mixture of emotions. peaceful, sad, still, shocked, angry. the sculpture in the top picture was made to go in the peace garden that now occupies ground zero. when the bomb was dropped, everything for miles and milea and miles was destroyed, everything disintergrated. in part of the park now, there are the remains of what used to be the prison. all that was left of the immediate area is a few bricks and a little bit of twisted metal. the sculpture reminds people that such an atrocity will not be tolerated again. you can see that his right arm points to the sky. he is pointing at where the bomb actually exploded - before impact with the ground. his left arm is poised over the earth with signals that he is ready, ready to defend his piece of earth, his country and his people. it was really moving being there, you are forced to think about the horrors that occur, then and now and in turn think about the innocent people who lost and loose their lives. it's very sad but very peaceful. everything now is concentrated on peace. the origami peace doves that schools send for the memorial are so beautiful in their colours and precision and quantities and the gardens are so quiet that it's easy to forget what it all stands for.
1 comment:
Your experience sounds very much like mine at Ground Zero in 2005. Scenes like that have a profound effect don't they?
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