Lesson of the world’s first atomic bombing

Tomorrow, Hiroshima will issue its 52nd Peace Declaration, appealing to nations the world over to abolish nuclear weapons in order to spare humankind the death and destruction that descended upon its people, Nagasaki and the Republic of the Marshall Islands.

In an article in the Asahi Evening News of 1 Aug., the article dealt with the despiriting trend of a lack of “passionate anti-nuclear commitment of their elders” among young Japanese. However, it went on to say that “hibakusha victims of the U.S. atomic bombing of Hiroshima on Aug. 6 and Nagasaki on Aug. 9, 1945 are still dying from sicknesses caused by radiation”.

With all the tension in the region and the guessing game of who might proceed with testing of nuclear missiles that may inflict death and destruction accidentally have all contributed to a growing climate of fear. It includes China boasting that it has developed its own neutron bomb, feud over sovereign claims to the Spratly Islands, and regional tension between China and Taiwan.

Perhaps the most important aspect of the peace movement is the eternal relevance of the destruction of atomic bombs on mankind. The Mayor of Hiroshima, Tadatoshi Akiba, proclaimed in his defiant affirmation of faith that “…nuclear weapons could not destroy…the spirit and backbone of human beings”, adding, that this is the choice (peace efforts on all nations) of most hibakusha who experienced “bottomless agony and living hell”.

Said he: “I believe that in a sense, hibakusha, most of whom are just ordinary citizens, captured the essence of what the latter part of the 20th Century and the 21st Century wouild mean to us in a flash of light. I think that it is the strength and brilliance of the human race itself that made them see the future, and I sure that in religious terms there are more appropriate ways of describing it, but short of that, I feel over and over again when I talk to hibakusha that they must have really understood, they must have really received some kind of revelation, a guidance through the 21st Century, and this attitude is beautifully captured in the memorial inscription of the cenotaph in the Peace Park of Hiroshimal. It reads: “Please rest peacefully, for we will not repeat the evil”.

Perhaps the one evil that still lingers among families and descendants of Hiroshima, Nagasaki and Republic of the Marshalls bomb victims is the lethal effects of radiation that still haunts them to this day, 54 years later. I hope the former U.S. ambassador who quipped that there are no problems “healthwise” among victims of radiation would know by now that he must have been swimming in the sea of amnesia when he uttered his words of either arrogance or ignorance or both.
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Interesting that the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings were preceded by the Tokyo fire, a six-hour inferno that probably killed more people in the history of mankind.

What’s even more shocking is the test “on a mock Japanese city built from wood in Utah” which had “first shown how quickly Tokyo couild be incinerated”. The official toll was 83,793 dead and 40918 wouinded.

More than one million Tokyoites were made homeless and some 267,171 buildings were destroyed. The Imperial Palace where Emperor Showa (Hirohito) was safe in a bunker built in 1942, was spared on orders of Major General Curtis LeMay, commander of the B-29s in the Marianas.