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I don't know about you, but when I travel to historic places I want to stand exactly where it happened. I don't mind looking over a battlefield from a viewing platform or seeing a historic wall from a nearby balcony (with a cold beer would be quite nice), but in the end, I want to be walking in the footsteps of history (pronounced "wit phō").
I never gave it much thought, as always figured this was quite normal. It wasn't until I visited Hiroshima that I found I was just a little different. Hiroshima has numerous museums and memorials memorializing what everybody who comes to Hiroshima comes for, and my wife and I visited them all. But then I realized that there was one thing missing: Where did the bomb explode? And when I say that I mean where exactly, I wanted to visit the exact spot, the epicenter. I realized that the bomb did not explode on the ground, but some 580m above the city (to amplify the destruction), but there had to be a "spot".
So while a thousand tourists toured the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park, I struck out on my own and found a modest marker down a modest street surrounded by a modest tourist. After I read what was on the marker, finished looking up, and the chill left my spine, I wanted to go back over to the park and tell everyone "Hey! It's right over here!".
And that's how this all started . . .
Hiroshima epicenter - August 14, 2018
Hiroshima epicenter - August 06, 1945