Japan on my mind

It‘s a beautiful day today, just as 9/11 and August 6, 1945 were beautiful days. The sting of evil is more potent on a beautiful day. I spent most of the morning in the Hiroshima Peace Museum and the Peace Memorial Hall. I feel like I have to write about it before I can go on to more pleasant things. This museum powerfully conveys the horror and the agony people suffered in the atomic bombing. I feel wrung out, and enormously sad, having spent the entire morning with tears in my eyes. I have never understood what makes us think we are justified in killing others. After seeing this memorial I am even more convinced of the monstrosity of justifying killing. More than that, I think we have accepted nuclear weapons as a fact of life and forgotten how devastating they can be. Our leaders say they believe the bomb can be used as a deterrent. They should be made to understand that these weapons should never be used. It is just too easy to go from thinking of them as deterrent to planning to use them. This is what certainly what is happening today. The city of Hiroshima has created a powerful memorial and remembrance of this terrifying event. They should now persuade every world leader to visit here and fully understand what took place.

To decompress, I spent the late afternoon on Miyajima, an island just off the coast, sacred to the gods of rice production and fishing. One of the attractions of the island is a herd of tame deer. They wander freely and accost the tourists, looking for food. This was the first time I ever touched a deer. I watched them eating food stolen from visitors and

even eating paper, just like goats. As I was walking back toward the ferry one of the deer tried to get into, or eat, my bag. He approached from behind, at first I thought someone was trying to pickpocket me, and wouldn’t stop until a young Japanese couple helped me
shoo him away.

Two of the specialties of the island are oysters and a kind of pastry shaped like a maple leaf and filled with various things ranging from red bean paste to chocolate to cream cheese. Of course, I can’t pass up food. I had two oysters, opened to order, and steamed
in their shells over a kind of grill. The maple leaf pastry I tried was filled with bean paste and came with a bowl of green tea.

I remained on the island until after dark to see the huge torii lit up. Most beautiful, as I left the ferry a huge full moon was rising over the harbor.