Taoiseach told 'we must break the cycle of hate' as he lays wreath at Hiroshima's Peace Memorial Park

There was some levity during the visit as an excited group of Japanese schoolchildren were left star struck after they waved to the Taoiseach

Taoiseach Micheál Martin visited Hiroshima's Peace Memorial Park and met with Mayor of Hiroshima Kazumi Matsui to commemorate the bombing and its victims. Photo: Aimée-Linh McCartney

“We must break the cycle of hate.”

This is what Taoiseach Micheál Martin was told by the Mayor of Hiroshima, Kazumi Matsui, in the moments after laying a wreath at the Japanese city’s Peace Memorial Park.

It is almost 80 years since the atomic bomb was detonated in the city, killing tens of thousands in its immediate blast and hundreds of thousands more with side-effects of radiation emitted in its wake.

Mr Martin arrived in Hiroshima on board the bullet train, the Shinkansen, for a brief trip to the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park where a  raised gazebo, containing the city’s peace bell, was built in 1964 to stand in opposition to the proliferation and continued development of nuclear weapons.

Mr Martin gave the bell a ring, resulting in a low drone emanating after the log struck metal. 

But after ringing the bell, it was pointed out to the Taoiseach there were dragonflies skittering across the pond below. He was quick to pull out his phone, attempting to snap a picture of bright blue bugs gliding above the water.

Shortly after, the delegation was back in their cars and speeding off to another part of the park. Stepping out of the car into the stifling heat, Mr Martin met with Mr Matsui and walked the long pathway towards the main cenotaph, commemorating the bombing.

Shaped like a saddle, it was designed to provide shelter for the souls of victims killed by the bomb. Mr Matsui explained to the Taoiseach that there are over 300,000 names within a stone chest at the cenotaph’s centre – one for each of the victims of the US attack in 1945.

He added somberly that an additional 5,000 names are added each year, as survivors of the attack pass away.

During his brief time in the city, the Taoiseach also met with hibakusha, survivors of the bomb, who outlined to him  in stark terms what the attack was like.

Teruko Yakata, who was just eight years old when the bomb was dropped, told the Taoiseach how she travelled to the hills to escape and later returned to the horrors that lay in Hiroshima.

“She spoke about the burning, the shrapnel, and the glass in her mother’s back,” Mr Martin said.

When they were coming back down from the hills, there was rows of people coming back up with burns and skin peeling off their arms.

The Taoiseach said it was a particularly moving description, highlighting the trauma that has remained throughout her life. Mr Martin described how Yakata has remained attached to bowls of rice as an emotional anchor, having told him how she received one while starving in the Hiroshima mountains.

“Someone gave her a bowl of rice. So even today, she cradles a bowl of rice and she would feed people with bowls of rice because that’s embedded in her psyche now.”

When the visit was wrapping up, just moments before Mr Martin was due to head for the airport to return home to Dublin, he was asked if he believed the world was now more dangerous than in 1945, with the advent of more powerful nuclear weapons and stronger weapons of war.

What's your view on this issue?

You can tell us here

He said: “I believe it is. It is in a very dangerous place.” The Taoiseach said it showed two differing sides to humanity; the ingenuity of the species in engineering, but also the “stupidity of humankind”.

While it was a particularly sombre visit to the city, there was some levity, as an excited group of Japanese schoolchildren waved to the Taoiseach before being left slightly star struck when the Hiroshima mayor informed them it was the Prime Minister of Ireland.

But his week-long visit to Japan has concluded, with the Taoiseach jetting off to Dublin via Toronto, with some speculation he could be on his way to Croker for Saturday’s match.