Japan

I just spent seven days in Japan. Overall it was a great trip. Specifically, it was magnificent. I spent time in Kyoto, Hiroshima, and Tokyo. Some general observation on the culture.

In all my tourist walking in the cities of Kyoto and Tokyo, I never heard a car horn. There was heavy traffic, but it flowed. Nobody crosses the street when the light is red. Everyone waits until it green to pass. Japan is the cleanest country I've ever visited. No debris, no scraps of paper, no detritus of any kind, anywhere. Try to find those three things in New York City.

I'll share many observations about the ancient capital Kyoto in coming posts. Today I want to share some of my visit to Hiroshima. Profound is a word we often overuse. My day in Hiroshima was that. I stood at ground zero. A plack points to the sky; nearly two thousand feet above that point is where the "Little Boy" bomb detonated. Probably eighty thousand died instantly, and 140-thousand died by the end of 1945.

What happened then was right. It was war. It saved thousands of American lives. It was still tragic and should not ever happen again.

One of my conclusions was that every leader of every country that has the nuclear bomb in their country's arsenal should be made to visit the Hiroshima museum once every year.