Two Camphor Trees
Beez Neez now Chy Whella
Big Bear and Pepe Millard
Sun 5 Nov 2017 23:57
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The Two
Magnificent Camphor Trees, Nagasaki
 Standing at the bottom of the steps guarded by the
lions, we looked up at two enormous camphor trees
with a plaque.
Camphor Trees in Sanno Shinto Shrine: These two huge
camphor trees stand out among the trees surrounding Sanno Shinto Shrine, sinking
deep roots on both sides of the entrance and creating a thick canopy of greenery
with their tangle of branches.
The
ferocious blast and heat generated by the explosion of the atomic bomb at 11:02
a.m. August 9, 1945 destroyed the buildings of the shrine, which were located
only 800 metres southeast of the hypocentre, and slapped down one of the pillars
of the second gate. These two trees were instantly stripped naked and spit down
the trunk by the blast and scorched black by the heat rays. Although considered
dead at the time, they came back to life and are now natural monuments
designated by Nagasaki City.
Nagasaki
City installs this plaque as a prayer for the repose of the souls of the people
who died here and to ensure that this tragedy is never
repeated.
  Looking at a bomb scar on the
chap to the left and his
label.
  The chap on the right had some fitted netting and a fancy plaster
cast.
 Further on was a little house and
garden, on we walked and saw a display
cabinet.
    The cabinet contained some amazing
pictures of our chaps and the lantern that once stood by the now
one-legged torii.
  From here we could take a picture of the lantern by the little house and one
nearer to the camphor trees.
 So from visiting the one-legged torii, we had found the
road marker, saw the lions, ventured up the steps and now stood by a lantern
gazing at these remarkable camphor trees – a
testament to survival. Once more a site decorated with folded paper cranes as a
symbol of peace.
 
The chap that was on our left
as we came up the steps and the other chap, who now
we could see has steps leading higher up his
trunk.
  Up the steps by our chap on the
right as we came up the main steps, a big
scar. In front of us a mesh. I held the camera to the mesh, snapped the camera and then took a sniff, that wonderful,
heady aroma of camphor, just the same as in our camphorwood chest made back in
1953.
 A scar higher
up.
  From August 1945 to November 2017..........
 Down to our lions once more,
turning left the way we had
come.................
 .......passing a little
shrine in the shade of our chap on the right, hundreds of peace
cranes dangling colourfully.
 Can two trees impact in our lives ??? Yes they can. They can
indeed.
ALL IN ALL MOTHER NATURE’S
DEFIANCE
QUITE, QUITE SPECIAL
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