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Hiroshima and Nagasaki: 60 years later NAGASAKI, Japan -- The young mother crouches over, trying as best she can to protect her tiny infant from the catastrophe of the atomic bomb, as another child clings to her back. It is a beautiful but heart-wrenching statue in the Peace Memorial Park in Hiroshima, site of the world's first nuclear attack 60 years ago - a stark reminder of the terrible human cost of what have become known as weapons of mass destruction. Tens of thousands of women and their children died in the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki on Aug. 6 and 9, 1945. In some cases, rescuers found a baby still alive underneath its dead mother. Aug. 15 was the anniversary of the day Japan surrendered, six days after the second bombing, ending World War II. A visit to Hiroshima and Nagasaki this month opened windows to an understanding of the enormity of the suffering and destruction in those cities at the end of the war. Many "hibakusha" (survivors of the bombings), now in their 70s and 80s, searched their memories to describe their experiences and express their feelings. Most of all, they and the younger people of the two cities find it unfathomable that the United States and other countries continue to maintain nuclear arsenals. As Kanenori Hirayama, 87, a hibakusha in Nagasaki, said, "The logic that we can use atomic weapons for justice prevails in the world, but that is a fake logic. In fact, it is to destroy the whole world." Mayor Iccho Itoh of Nagasaki, speaking at that city's anniversary ceremony, was especially outspoken. "The nuclear weapons states, and the United States of America in particular, have ignored their international commitments and have made no change in their unyielding stance on nuclear deterrence," he said. "We strongly resent the trampling of the hopes of the world's people." The United States and the other nuclear states are invited annually to send ambassadors to the Nagasaki observance, but they have repeatedly refused. This year a representative of Russia attended and participated in a ceremony offering flowers in memory of the victims. It was the first time a nuclear power has been represented. Walking through the museums in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, this American was overcome with shame at what the United States did in 1945 – dropping two bombs that obliterated two cities, killing an estimated140,000 people outright and exposing tens of thousands of others to deadly radiation. The museums display the death and destruction in gruesome detail: Pictures of blackened corpses, depictions of the flattened houses and buildings, scorched flesh, a pair of glasses melted into a skull, a charred tricycle, and a mangled clock stopped at 8:15, when the bomb exploded over Hiroshima on the morning of Aug. 6. President Harry Truman tried to justify the bombings by arguing that they saved the lives of many American servicemen by ending the war sooner. But this rings hollow. Can there ever be a valid rationale for murdering innocent children? Mayor Tadatoshi Akiba of Hiroshima, at his city's ceremony, said our sacred obligation to future generations is to establish the axiom, "Thou shalt not kill," and especially its corollary, "Thou shalt not kill children," as the highest priority for the human race. War has been a tragic fact of life in the world for centuries, but it escalated dramatically on those two August days in 1945. Fortunately, we have gone 60 years with no further resort to nuclear bombs, but their eventual use is inevitable unless the nuclear powers agree to disarm. This will require a huge paradigm shift in a world that has become inured to the concept of nuclear deterrence. A Gallup poll earlier this month indicated most Americans support Truman's decision. Of 1,010 adults polled by telephone, 576 said they approved; 384 disapproved. How sad! How incredibly sad that we continue to believe that violence is the way to resolve international conflicts – and that stockpiling the ultimate violence of nuclear weaponry is acceptable, even desirable. If only those 576 Americans could spend a few days in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, interviewing hibakusha and walking through the museums. If only President Bush and other leaders would go there, too. We must confront the reality of nuclear war. Kanenori Hirayama tells us we are on a suicide mission, and he is dead right. Ed McManus (emm@voyager.net) is chair of the National Council of the Fellowship of Reconciliation, which sent a delegation to Japan this month. Read report of Japan Delegation's activities The Fellowship of Reconciliation. |