Room no 56, Miyako hotel: An investing lesson
Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. I will start with a disclaimer—this column is inspired by a chapter in Fluke by Brian Klaas—a good book in how luck plays an important role in life. The history we know tells us that the first atomic bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August of 1945, killing around 200,000 people.
What we may not know is that Kyoto, home to wartime factories and an intellectual hub with an educated population, was meant to be the first target for the bomb. The other three cities in the target list were Hiroshima, Yokohama, and Kokura as backup. Nagasaki wasn’t even part of the deliberations.
The atom bomb became a reality in July and all plans were ready to drop the bomb on Kyoto on the rail yards of the city. The target site was half a mile away from Hotel Miyako. An unrelated story had occurred 20 years ago.
Henry Stimson had gone to Kyoto with his wife for a holiday in 1926 and stayed at Hotel Miyako in Room no 56. They enjoyed the beautiful city in its autumn weather, explored the gardens, the hills, its historic temples, the rich heritage, and collected great memories during their 6-day stay. This turned out to be an extraordinary visit, leading to one man playing God 20 years later, saving 100,000 lives while transferring death to a similar number of people in another city.
It turned out to be the most consequential sightseeing trip in human history. Nineteen years later, Stimson was America’s secretary of war and the top civilian overseeing wartime operations. “I don’t want Kyoto bombed," he said, as soon as the target committee picked Kyoto as the first city to be destroyed and informed him.
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