Is Hiroshima the Liveliest City in Japan

Is Hiroshima the Liveliest City in Japan?

The city of Hiroshima has been enveloped( 包围) in the air of misery since the first A-bomb explosion ever took place in World War Two. It seems that whole city has been buried in the ashes and debris of buildings. All you can find here are handicapped(残疾) people and anguish（痛苦） memory. If we have to find some words to describe the city, it will be no other than, grief, agony （极大地痛苦）or sepulture（坟墓）. But after the trip to Hiroshima led by the writer, I feel amazed at their vigor活力 optimism and the daring spirit of smiling with hidden burns and wounds.

All the citizens here seem to have no preoccupations成见 as the writer did. When we see the little Japanese adrift amid beige concrete skyscrapers摩天大楼, or rubbing shoulders with traditional and modern ladies with the writer’s eye, we don’t feel it a bit different from a prospering modern city with old traditions. Time marches on and there is no use dwelling too much on old memories. Thousands upon thousands of new skyscrapers rise on the debris of the martyred city. Businessman are working actively for their companies. The mayor makes great endeavors努力 to earn the southern Japanese sea food a world fame. With astonishment, we may call this magnificent achievement a miracle.

If someone would call the rebound in economy a recovery in the shadow of incurable hurt deep in soul, I have to confess that I share the same point with him. But incurable hurts are not obstacles that cannot be overcome. As the old fisherman in the hospital stated, he felt he had a good fortune to experience the

catastrophe大灾难 and the agony it brings along because he had an opportunity to improve his character and personality.

As time goes by, the humiliation passes down to the descendants后代 of the victims and survivors. But they learned to survive in the prejudice and discriminations of other healthy people. They join the competitions and make achievements, at a higher cost. In some sense, they are the liveliest people in the city. With the belief that misfortune is the treasure, they have a more cultivated mind and purer soul.

Whether the city Hiroshima is the liveliest city depends on how we define the word “liveliest”. Some people may define it as economic booming. So big cities like New York will be a good illustration说明 of it. But that’s not the whole story. I believe a city that gets a renaissance再生 after a cataclysm deserves the name of “liveliest city”. That ‘s also what the writer is trying to tell us through his report.

Not every city can survive this kind of disaster. When we look back in history, we can find hundreds of cities that have been buried in ashes of volcanoes or destroyed by a war. But Japanese have stood up against catastrophes大灾难 for not only once the history. That’s because of their strong will to survive, their refusal to get drowned in the past and their hope that the future will be bright after the darkest dawn.

But on the other hand no city can be sure that it will never undergo a fatal impact影响. It is those who have the liveliest people that are able to be restored

and renascent. The hell fire from the heaven demonstrated展示 the distinguished character of Hiroshima, which is the so-called “lively”.