Why one should travel to Hiroshima to revisit the past

EVERYONE should visit Japan's Hiroshima "peace" memorial, said US Secretary of State John Kerry this week. He said this after becoming the first US government official in 70 years to see first-hand some of the horrors that occurred when Hiroshima was scorched by an atomic bomb.

Mr Kerry is right. Everyone should see the silently accusing memorial. He was right too in calling it a "gut-wrenching" experience although I personally felt, and continue to feel, a haunting sense of sadness since I first visited the display some 15 years ago.

Hiroshima is a pleasant and quite elegant city with a waterway that winds through it and is home to moored boats on which one might sample the most delectable oysters. There are bright green tramcars too that still ply the streets in happy celebration of a bygone age.