Around the World Trip - Dave's Midwestern Ohio Memories

Series of Guest Blogs by an out-of-state Fish Report reader originally from this area about fond memories of growing up in Midwestern Ohio during the 50’s & 60’s

Around the World Trip

In last week’s blog about Japan following the Tokyo Olympics, I promised to share the details of an around-the-world trip with a first stop in Hiroshima, Japan. At the time in the early 1980’s, my employer, Ford Motor Company, sent me to review first hand all the new Ford operations being established in the Far East. The trip entailed visits to Japan, South Korea, Thailand, Malaysia and India. Each operation had a local partner to assist with the political and logistical issues and help Ford get a foothold in each country. Mazda, based in Hiroshima, Japan, was already a partner with Ford on several small car programs, so given their Far East presence, they also were helping. So that’s why the first stop was in Hiroshima to meet up with my Mazda counterpart named Kurahashi who would be joining me.

But before we left for our next stop in South Korea, Kurahashi provided a personally guided tour of the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park, the site of the first of two nuclear bomb detonations (Nagasaki) that ended World War II. Check out this previous blogpost for more on the subject. Kurahashi was a very gracious host and provided a perspective beyond simply touring the site and reading the inscriptions on each display.

For example, he shared that the Genbaku Dome pictured here was originally an art and education exhibition center that was designed by a Czeck architect to be earthquake proof, and as it turns out, atomic bomb proof, since it was the only structure left standing in the central city of Hiroshima. The bomb literally exploded directly above the dome so all the forces were directly downward at this spot, which allowed the steel beams and concrete to absorb the blow, while every other building around the area suffered the bomb's lateral forces that flattened everything to the ground.

Kurahashi also shared that one of the survivors of Hiroshima actually also lived through the blast at Nagasaki. This story intrigued me and years later I read a book about the man's experiences. Here’s a recap of his story from the History Channel.

The tour of the Memorial represented a very moving experience that I will never forget. Let’s hope and pray the message being commemorated by the Peace Park Memorial keeps mankind from detonating another nuclear bomb.

Speaking of nuclear threat, Seoul, South Korea, our next stop, was only 30 miles from the DMZ and North Korean border. Back then North Korea didn’t have nuclear capability, so such a threat was not really a factor during our visit like it would be if traveling there today.

More on the RTW trip next week. No nuclear threats, promise!

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