My Earliest Memory of Visiting Memorial - Hiroshima Nao Okada

The experience of visiting the Atomic Bomb Dome in Hiroshima Japan when I was 13 years old is the earliest memory for me. This is definitely not the earliest visit in my life, however, this is the earliest one which I recognized the place as a memorial of something. I was on tour from the middle school, and there were about 150 students in my class. It was in the hottest season in August in Japan, and most of the students were tired of standing outside the building quietly while we prayed. I remember that the strong sunlight overlapped my image of the heat of the atomic bomb. My memory consists of two parts, myself standing around the monument with fellow students and the exhibition of the museum. The clearest memory of the exhibition was about a half melted tricycle for children and a lunchbox made of metal which still contained rice which turned into charcoal.