Hiroshima April 30

We both wanted to bear witness by visiting Hiroshima. Simply put, it was overwhelming. We’ve visited the memorials at Pearl Harbor, the Hanford Site in Washington that produced plutonium for the bomb, and, in years past, a war museum in Kyoto so this was the opportunity to come full circle. I hadn’t done any research ahead of time with respect to the actual museum or memorials and I didn’t take any photos in the museum – the interpretive signs and surroundings in the Peace Park were more than adequate to convey the horrors that human beings can inflict on each other.

For additional education, we’ve also been attending the talks by Adam Tanner, the speaker for this cruise. He’s definitely a overachiever (writer, former foreign correspondent, photographer, etc.) – we’ve heard him before, probably on Crystal Cruises. He’s also the go-to speaker that Smithsonian uses on their trips. https://www.adamtanner.news/

For my Intel and/or history buddies – an interesting bit of trivia: In one of his talks, Adam discussed MacArthur at some length and Ron and I agreed that he presented a balanced perspective of the man. After the talk, Ron was contemplating when Deming came to Japan. As Ron puts it – Deming was one of the most influential people in the world that no one has ever heard of. The deming.org site says it better than I could:

Born on October 14, 1900, Dr. W. Edwards Deming was an eminent scholar and teacher in American academia for more than half a century. He published hundreds of original papers, articles and books covering a wide range of interrelated subjects—from statistical variance, to systems and systems thinking, to human psychology. He was a consultant to business leaders, major corporations, and governments around the world. His efforts lead to the transformation of management that has profoundly impacted manufacturing and service organizations around the world.

From the Wikipedia article:

Many in Japan credit Deming as one of the inspirations for what has become known as the Japanese post-war economic miracle of 1950 to 1960, when Japan rose from the ashes of war on the road to becoming the second-largest economy in the world through processes partially influenced by the ideas Deming taught.

In 1947, Deming was involved in early planning for the 1951 Japanese Census. The Allied powers were occupying Japan, and he was asked by the United States Department of the Army to assist with the census. He was brought over at the behest of General Douglas MacArthur, who grew frustrated at being unable to complete so much as a phone call without the line going dead due to Japan’s shattered postwar economy. While in Japan, his expertise in quality-control techniques, combined with his involvement in Japanese society, brought him an invitation from the Union of Japanese Scientists and Engineers (JUSE).[13]

…….

Ford Motor Company was one of the first American corporations to seek help from Deming. In 1981, Ford’s sales were falling. Between 1979 and 1982, Ford had incurred $3 billion in losses. Ford’s newly appointed Corporate Quality Director, Larry Moore, was charged with recruiting Deming to help jump-start a quality movement at Ford.[24] Deming questioned the company’s culture and the way its managers operated. To Ford’s surprise, Deming talked not about quality, but about management. He told Ford that management actions were responsible for 85% of all problems in developing better cars. In 1986, Ford came out with a profitable line of cars, the Taurus-Sable line. In a letter to Autoweek, Donald Petersen, then Ford chairman, said, “We are moving toward building a quality culture at Ford and the many changes that have been taking place here have their roots directly in Deming’s teachings.”[25] By 1986, Ford had become the most profitable American auto company. For the first time since the 1920s, its earnings had exceeded those of archrival General Motors (GM). Ford had come to lead the American automobile industry in improvements. Ford’s following years’ earnings confirmed that its success was not a fluke, for its earnings continued to exceed GM and Chrysler’s.

Ron was part of the Intel group that attended a couple of Deming training seminars in Washington, DC and Intel was influenced by him as well. I was working for Intel after Ford changed its ways, and was responsible administering the returns of Intel’s products when they failed in Ford’s cars. It was clear that Intel needed to up its game, and they did.

The A-bomb Dome dominates the Peace Park memorial site. Although not without controversy, eventually the decision was made to reinforce it and preserve it as a memorial.

Sadako was a 2 year old, near the bomb site, who survived but came down with leukemia 10 years later. She folded paper cranes, a symbol of long life, believing that if she folded 1000, she would survive. Sadly, she didn’t but her friends and classmates started what became an international organization to memorialize her and this statue was the outcome.

The view from the museum. Midpoint is an eternal flame which will burn until all nuclear bombs on the planet are destroyed. At the far end is the A-Bomb Dome. The archway is a monument holding the names of all who were killed by the bomb.

On the left, a group of international visitors, on the right Japanese visitors.

School children learning history by drawing. They’re next to the bomb target, a T shaped bridge. Ground zero was a couple blocks away.

Shukkei-en Garden was very near ground zero. It was built in 1620, destroyed by the bomb, but rebuilt and reopened in 1951.

This lovely bridge can be seen in the photo below which shows it after being bombed.

A-bomb blast centre

second-generation trees

are starting to bud

by Yasuhiko Shigemoto, who was 15, and living in Hiroshima at the time of the bombing. He did survive and had a long career.