All the monumental reminders that the Japanese city of Hiroshima has left standing so that no one forgets the horror of atomic weapons are moving. The iron skeleton of the dome of the building that was at the epicenter of the explosion on August 6, 1945; the Peace Park, where a flame burns eternally in memory of the victims; the thousands of paper cranes created with the origami technique by schoolchildren from the town; the clock stopped at 8:14, the exact moment a fireball devastated the city…
Even when visiting Hiroshima Castle, remember that this wooden relic built in 1589 succumbed to nuclear terror, and that the relaxing fortress you can walk around today is a concrete replica built in 1958 (a numerical anagram?).
Directly damaged by the nuclear explosion, 166,000 people died in Hiroshima. It seemed that the deadly weapon was capable of eliminating all life within a radius of several kilometers around the point of the explosion. However, there were some beings that resisted and are still alive. And that just a few weeks after the attack they were already sprouting up. The Japanese adore them and call them hibakujumoku (literally, “bombed tree”).
There are almost forty species among the trees that lived after the explosion of the nuclear bomb. Several of them are ginkgo biloba, a species considered a living fossil, since it is known that it already existed 200 million years ago. It has a very dark, almost black, ridged trunk and its fan-shaped leaves are luscious. Its medicinal properties are also known.
There are several hibakujumoku in the gardens at Hiroshima Castle. But also other specimens in the Hosen-ji and Myojoin-ji temples and in the Shukkeien gardens.
Some of the trees were a surprisingly short distance from the point of impact. Honkyo-ji Temple Peony was only 800 meters away; a holly, 900 meters; in Hosenbo, a camphor tree at 1,100 meters.
Among the resistant species are some that are already sacred in Asian cultures, such as the giant ficus. But also others of great significance as symbols of vital regrowth in Japan: cherry trees, persimmons, weeping willows or apricot trees; and some that represent the misty and icy landscape that enchants in the East, such as the laurel or the black pine.
Strangely, there is no proposal by the local authorities for a route to locate and visit the hibakujumoku, and the only way to find out about them is through a discreet sign that hangs from their trunks, as if it were a scapular. A tree silhouette logo framing the Peace dome makes them recognizable. There, the species and the distance it was from the epicenter of the attack was reported.
The Japanese are extraordinarily sensitive to the use of language. And in the same way that they do not dare call the people who remained alive after the explosion “survivors†–it seems pejorative with respect to those who died– but rather hibakusha (exposed to the bomb), they are reluctant to call the trees Also like this, that’s why they have formed a new word.
There is no published map of the location of the hibakujumoku. However, the citizens of Hiroshima adore them and are willing to show the foreigner where to find some of them, a symbol of resilience and that life triumphs over death.
