Visiting Peace Park is an emotional jolt. The A-bomb Dome remains as a constant reminder of the 6 August 1945 bombing. The port city of Hiroshima anticipated it might be bomb target and tore down buildings to make firewalls, but they could not prepare for a nuclear attack. When the A-bomb hit, locals did not know exactly what had happened. Only when hospital x-rays showed radiation did doctors realize the explosion was nuclear.

The museum offers photos of dead bodies in the streets, mangled bodies, people who lost hair and skin, corroded watches, torn and melted clothes, video testimony of survivors and a lunch box with charred food remains. A wall is covered with thousands of letters sent by Hiroshima’s mayors to presidents and dictators testing or building nuclear weapons. Visiting the museum left me sick to my stomach.