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All I want to say now is, for normal people: Live life to the full - and please... NO MORE BLOODY WAR And for all you psycho war-mongers... FUCK OFF

I went to the Nagasaki National Peace Memorial Hall, The Atomic Bomb Museum and the Nagasaki Peace Park today. I wasn't expecting a pleasant experience... Words fail me - so I'll just quote from a few of the plaques for some of the exhibits that struck me particularly hard: On a large picture of Nagasaki before the bombing - at the entrance to the Atomic Bomb Museum: "Nagasaki, where the curtain of history opened with the arrival of Portuguese ships in 1571. Nagasaki, which through its relations with Holland and China was Japan's only open port from 1641 to 1859. Nagasaki, where Japanese students gathered to draw from the well of Western knowledge. Nagasaki, where Western-style buildings stood side by side and the foreign settlements bustled in the late 19th century. Nagasaki, which gradually changed from a trade port to a shipbuilding center in the course of modernisation. Nagasaki, where a dark shadow fell during the war with China and World war II. Nagasaki, surrounded on three sides by mountains and boasting a colorful history of 374 years, greeted the summer morning of August 9, 1945." By a reconstruction of the facade of the old Urakami Cathedral: "The Urakami district of Nagasaki was the site of Christian missionary work from the latter part of the 16th century. The people of Urakami suffered persecution constantly from 1587 when Christianity was outlawed until 1873 when the ban was finally lifted. These faithful people began to build a church, placing one brick upon another. Their labors bore fruit with the completion of the grandest church in East Asia in 1914 and the twin 26 meter-high spires in 1925. But the explosion of the atomic bomb slapped the spires down and reduced the church to a hollow shell of rubble." Beneath the exhibit of a melted rosary: "This rosary was found in the ashes of a house exposed to the atomic bombing about 600 meters from the hypo-center. The glass rosary beads melted like [toffy] as a result of the ferocious heat. At the time of the explosion, the donor's mother was working at the house of a relative (beside Urakami Cathedral). Searching for her mother the following day, she found the rosary in the ashes of the relative's house. Her mother had died at Urakami Cathedral. She treasured the rosary for many years as a memento of her mother before donating it to Nagasaki City on the 40th anniversary of the atomic bombing." From a collection of testimonies from some of the survivors of the bomb: My sister was trapped under the fallen house "My two year old sister was crying hysterically, trapped under the fallen house. The beam was so heavy. The sailors tried to lift it but went away saying "It's no use." Suddenly I saw someone running towards us. It was a woman. She was naked and her body was purple. "Mother!" Now we thought everything would be alright. Our neighbor tried to lift the beam but it did not budge. "It's impossible," he said. "There's just no helping it." He bowed deeply in apology and went away. The fires were approaching quickly. Mothers' face went pale. She looked down and my sister looked up with fear-stricken eyes. Mother scanned the beam again, then slid her shoulder under it and heaved upward with all the strength in her body. The beam rose with a crack and my sister's legs came free. But mother sank exhausted to the ground. She had been out in the field picking eggplants for lunch when the bomb exploded. Her hair was red and frizzled. Her skin was burned and festering all over her body. The skin had ripped right off the shoulder she had applied to the beam. The muscle was visible and blood was streaming out. She soon began to writhe in agony, and she died that night." This was written by Michiko Ogino, who was a 10 year old girl at the time of the bombing. I cried when I read that last one - and my face is wet with tears as I reproduce it here. (Fortunately, the internet cafe that I am using here in Nagasaki City is pretty quiet at the moment...)