A number of years ago I had visited Hawaii. It was very nice. Sun a plenty, a constant cool breeze and the occasional sprinkle of rain to add to the cooling atmosphere. As said before, it was pretty nice.
While I was there I visited Pearl Harbor. There's a lot of propped up information to read about what happened but visually there isn't much aside from the ocean and and the view of the working docks from the tourist side. What struck me as odd was the amount of foreign tourists. Japan is pretty close to Hawaii in terms of travel and Japanese tourists frequently travel for their vacation. What was odd was that the country that was the cause of the memorial in the first place comes and visits and takes picture while on vacation. On the opposite end of the spectrum American tourists do the same thing to Hiroshima.
It struck me as ghoulish how people in general travel to monuments of wartime horror on their leisurely travels to visit. I get the need to remember the past as not to repeat it in the future. It still strikes me as odd if a bit ghoulish. Granted, if I get the chance to visit Japan I will take the opportunity to visit Hiroshima and it's memorials and I will feel ghoulish all the while.
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