version without pictures printable pdf single page March 15 • March 17
I was awake really early and was up on deck 10 by 6:10 am. Had a couple of cups of coffee and a roll while watching us enter the harbor of Nagasaki! Leslie squired me to the appropriate deck where we snacked together. She is a dear always looking out for me! Love the staff and the passengers. They always smile at the cripple and ask how my knee is. A fire boat greeted us spraying water up a lot. Phil woke up later and took pictures out on the deck right outside our room. He was still in stocking feet when I returned!
We had to go through the fingerprinting routine for immigration entering into Japan before breakfast. Enjoyed breakfast before setting out on our excursion to the Atomic Bomb Museum. In retrospect I’m really glad we changed our venue as Nagasaki is known for its bomb. We had an excellent experienced guide that Gordon, our cruise director, had used before. She was excellent. We were on the first bus to do the atomic tour. High Country Passage gave us each 1,000 yens to spend. It came in handy for my museum purchases because the money Phil had brought from home turned out to be Korean money not Japanese and was unusable!
Our first stop was the Peace Park where we had 45 minutes to tour the different statues and take pictures of the park and its 1000 cranes. A very inspiring place. Later, in a discussion, someone asked why the US never contributed a statue. We could have at least done that in recognition of all the lives that were lost that day. Someone told me at night they had seen a statue from the US. I sure missed it!
Next stop was ground zero before we visited the museum. We took a series of elevators to catch up with the group. There was an obelisk type statue at ground zero. It was a sobering moment to observe this spot. On August 9, 1945, however, a single atomic bomb dropped by American forces reduced a large portion of the city to a scorched wasteland. 73,884 people were killed. 65% were senior citizens, children and women. 74,909 people were injured. In a flashing instant Nagasaki’s invaluable cultural heritage was obliterated. From the “Nagasaki Peace Guidebook.”
Next we had about an hour to tour the museum. At first we stayed with our guide and then eventually split off on our own. Of course, we needed more time here to carefully digest all the material. There was no way we could do this. We opted to see some exhibits and watch two rather long movies that depicted the utter horror and devastation! They really brought the message home to us. We then bought a peace T-shirt for me and a book. We were to look to see if the museum showed remorse in any way or had Japan apologizing in any way or indicating they had started the war with bombing Pearl Harbor. We didn’t find this but Dr. Perry later told us he had seen a 3 minute video in the basement that slightly acknowledged Japan’s role in it all.
Later in the afternoon at 5-6:00 pm we had a chance to gather in the upper lounge and share our feelings and observations about this museum and the Peace Park. The comments showed lots of depth and knowledge about this time period. Phil took the computer and took good notes so I will defer to him.
Meanwhile after lunch and before the five o’clock session we had a ceremony seeing our captain and the exchanging of plaques on this historic day when the Silver Whisperer first docked in Nagasaki. This was followed by a Tyco drum ceremony where the performers were excellent. I couldn’t believe that I was nodding off during this noisy performance but I was!!
After that at 2:30 pm we had a lecture by Glen Fukushima President and CEO of Airbus Japan and former President of the American Chamber of Commerce in Japan. He spent his undergraduate years at Stanford and his graduate years at Harvard. Phil was thrilled with the outline he presented us! I’ll defer to Phil on the notes but I thought the overtones were quite sad about our US/ Japan relationships. The demographic changes in Japan have been quite dramatic. It’s an old population now with more over 65 coupled with a very low birth rate. Health care system is quite good and universal. Life expectancy is now up to 79 — higher than the US. The educational system is showing decline in the last decade.
The role of women needs tackling directly. Of 27 boards of corporations only 2 women are on these boards. One is his wife. Right now you can’t have a career if you want to have children. Last year women board members were up to 5. Many more women, however, work for foreign companies.
A controversy over whether Japan encouraged women to become prostitutes in Nanjing during the occupation there is underway. Japan is reviving its competitiveness with other Asian nations. Japan is hard for others to figure out, including the Japanese!
Japan is financially integrated with China but if the US and China are at loggerheads, this would have an impact on Japan. Japan and US leaders have trust but the Japanese public feels neglected by the US.
As we pulled away from the dock an all-women’s high school band played for us and waved. There were many citizens waving goodbye to us, too. I found it very emotional and shed a few tears. They were terrific!
We joined the Perrys, Brett and Kathleen, and assorted other guests at dinner tonight for a thoroughly enjoyable evening. My neighbor Emily lives across the street from George and Barbara Bush and she was happy to be able to report to them that I enjoyed meeting them very much. She said this was a relaxing vacation for them as they are still in the limelight and his was more reminiscing for him and no responsibility for Barbara. Phil sat next to Lee Perry and enjoyed his conversation with her. I enjoyed speaking with Brett and he was busy asking me how I compared the 3 World Leader Trip.
We bar-hopped upstairs and ran across Amy McFadden and had a great chat with her until she met the young people she had arranged to meet. We danced a few steps and Phil turned in at 11 while I’ve now caught up at 12:50 am. So here it is Yelena’s birthday. Have a great day. Love and cheers to all.