Hiroshima on August 6｜A Bar Owner’s Night at the Peace Park
2026.8.09
Eighty-one years since the atomic bombing of Hiroshima.
August 6
Late at night, after the bar closes, I come to the Peace Memorial Park. Not every year, but most years, at this hour.
This year there was one monk.
In the darkness, the only sound was his sutra.
I remember when there were 10 or so of them, chanting through the night.
I wonder if they’ve stopped.
Only a handful of people had come to pray.
A security guard passing by said there were far fewer this year than usual.
Standing in the same place
This past year I again took several guests from overseas to the Peace Memorial Museum.
Walking through it with them, one thing became clear.
How people receive it differs completely, country by country.
Some go very quiet.
They speak less, and their pace slows.
You can feel them taking it in as their own history, not someone else’s.
That was the only response I had ever seen.
And then there were people who received it entirely differently.
“War will never go away.”
That is what one of them said to me.
I couldn’t find the right words to answer.
They don’t know what August means here
Something else surprised me more.
Younger Japanese guests arrive without knowing what August means in Hiroshima.
They came sightseeing, and it happened to be this time of year.
I’ve met a good many of them.
Folding paper cranes, going to the Peace Memorial Park, listening to a survivor tell their story.
Standing under a tree that survived the bombing, thinking about peace.
That is what summer meant to those of us who went to primary school in Hiroshima. It was never what every child in Japan did.
And yet I wonder whether that is really a bad thing.
Maybe the fact that they can go without knowing is itself a kind of peace.
And still, I find myself thinking
Even as I think that, I hold the opposite thought.
When someone visiting Hiroshima is short on time.
Miyajima, or the Peace Memorial Park.
If they can only manage one, I find myself wanting them to go to the Peace Memorial Park.
Miyajima is a truly wonderful place.
And still, that is what I find myself wanting.
This is just the selfish feeling of someone born in Hiroshima.
I wrote this on last year’s blog. I think the same thing this year.
A beautiful world and capitalism sit at odds with each other, and only those who manage that tension well rise to the top.
And at the same time, it all stands on someone else’s sacrifice.
Sometimes the person who takes the practical gain ends up making someone happier than the person chasing a beautiful world does.
Dilemmas like that, tangled up in one another.
In the end, I think everything anyone says is spoken from where they stand.
Which is exactly why it matters to know the facts properly, and to have a position of your own.
Eighty Years Since the Bombing｜Thoughts from a Bar Owner Living in Hiroshima
Every August I think about these things, and I feel gratitude toward the people who made Hiroshima this beautiful in only 80 years, and a sense of what it means to run a bar here.
※ To anyone working in whisky or rum: if you’re coming to Hiroshima, I’m glad to make arrangements and show you around. Please just ask (no charge).
Every encounter is meant to be. Welcome to the world of Rum & Whisky.
📍 Bar Little Happiness
5-14-1F Nagarekawa-cho, Naka-ku, Hiroshima
Mon–Sat: 19:00–24:30 / Sun: until 24:00
(Last entry approx. 1 hour before closing)
Open almost every day of the year
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