2007 February 12 @ hello! yoshi

So, feeling nostalgic about living in Iwakuni, I decided to take out my super old Geocities website that I had, that got some pretty decent hits in the old hey day. It even got reviewed and received 3/5 stars (read: crappy) in some Internet magazine. (Jeff remembers that one I’m sure.) Anyways, this portion is what I wrote about Hiroshima so long ago (1997 or so – that’s the geocities days right? And sorry the image is so small! Even the clicked on image is a bit small.):

If you were to go north of Miyajima, taking the JR for about 6 or 7 more stops (don’t quote me on that one), then you would arrive at Hiroshima. Hiroshima is historical worldwide not for it’s commerce, or industrial power, but because it was the first city to have a nuclear device used upon. On August 6, 1945, the Enola Gay dropped “Little Boy” upon the city of Hiroshima, and an estimated 200,000 people were killed that day. It is truly sad to know while we would walk through Peace Park that not so long ago, people were fighting to survive this catastrophe. Surely, as my friends and I, as part of the United States Navy, were very guilty to be walking through the park, feeling rather remorseful. However, we know that we did not do it, and that made it feel a bit better. But walking through the hallways of the Peace Park Museum, it was very hard to not feel somber. The displays had remnants of clothes, watches, uniforms, and other structures showing the effects of the A-Bomb. I would have to say that all in all, Peace Park and the Museum was a very sobering experience. There were people from all over the world, and in this one place, we could see what devastation such devices wrought. In some areas of the newly designed Museum, you can see the current growth of nuclear arms in the world, and it is by far rather sad. Though I have not been there in a long while, I’m sure it hasn’t changed. War is not a good thing.

You can see me in the above picture standing in front of what is now called the “A-Bomb Dome”. This is all that is truly left of 1945 Hiroshima, a reminder of those times of war. It is truly a breathtaking site, in the middle of this industrial city lies a now dead building, shown as a shrine would be.

[tags]Hiroshima, Japan, A-bomb Dome, nuclear arms, Peace Park[/tags]

For those of you who were lucky enough to be military brats (like me) and were stationed on Yokota AFB, I welcome you. :) If you weren’t, then I welcome you too!

One of the biggest things I remember about Yokota is something that is no longer there. Yokota Burger. I don’t know how many hours I’ve spent there, playing asteroids or just hanging out. I Totally miss Yokota Burger. Does anyone have a picture left of it?

I know I’m weird, and let me tell you, it’s all true, but I often recall memories from smell. I know, it sounds weird, but just listen for a moment.

When I flew over to MCAS Iwakuni, my friend “L” and I (which is a funny story of which I’ll probably share later) flew into Yokota AFB on a 747. Now, Yokota was not a commercial airport (of course) and this was a military flight, so we didn’t get the deluxe package things like oh… a covered terminal. So when we got off the plane, I could smell the air, and let me tell you, it was nostalgic. I remembered so much about Japan and Yokota AFB, it was crazy.

Even just thinking about it, I’m pretty sure I was close to tears when I arrived. But I digress.

Yokota was a monumental part of my life while growing up. Aside from the fact that I spent a majority of my childhood there, it was definitely a place where I bonded with some lifelong friends. Yokota High School definitely contributed to that.

Wow. You know there’s so many memories I have of YHS. I remember for gym class, we had to square dance. OMG that was just crazy. I cannot say to this day that I ever benefited from learning how to square dance, and I’m still baffled why we had to do such a thing. For P.E. class. Come on. How many of you folk out there had to do this?

I’ll probably start flowing out more memories of YHS sooner or later, but not today. If you went to YHS, feel free to share some memories. :)

Dana started Memory Monday last year to honor her Grandfather, who suffered from Dementia/Alzheimer’s. This is cool. Feel free to participate. This is my way of not forgetting some of the life changing (and not so life changing) events in my life.

[tags]memories, Memory Monday, Yokota, YHS, Yokota Burger[/tags]