Childs Lunchbox

 Visiting the museum in Hiroshima was a really sobering experience. Seeing the photos of the people who had to live through really made the tragedy feel real. I had always learned about the Hiroshima atom bomb in school but I never really had thought about the individual people that were affected because they were all the way across the world and lived before I was even born. The object I decided to write about and the thing that hit me the hardest out of all the objects that were left over from victims was the school child’s lunchbox. This lunchbox was made of metal and was filled with ashes showing the food that was once there. It was super sad to think that this mother had sent their son or daughter to school after working hard to make them a lunch that they would never eat. What really hit home was that the kid had hopes and dreams and because of the atomic bomb they would never even get a chance to try to achieve those dreams or goals. They had their freedom robbed from them. I’m really not sure what this piece really says about the Japanese attempts to deal with the heritage of the atomic bomb. It could be that by taking everyday objects from a wide range of people could help the Japanese and just every visitor of the museum realize that every single type of person was affected by the devastation caused by the atomic bomb. It killed and destroyed indiscriminately. To me personally I think putting this on display could help the Japanese deal with the difficult history with the bombing by helping people realize that they are lucky enough to be alive and to be able to make decisions every day and really decide what they want to do with their lives. Because the victims of Hiroshima didn’t get that same privilege.