Hiroshima, surviving domeI’ve been trying to start this blog for a while now but just don’t know how to begin writing about a subject which is so disturbing and distressing. Terrifying and horrific, Hiroshima is the symbol of human cruelty, a planned mass killing, long term effects, cover up and the desire for power.
When an atomic bomb hit men, women, children, workers, families, commuters, teachers, soldiers and students on 8.15am on August 6th 1945 no one knew what had happened. A light flashed in the sky and the survivors believed that they had been hit by some form of disease. Walking around the Peace museum I shuddered at what I saw and could not even begin to imagine how the melting, burnt, walking corpses must have felt. The museum showed us letters about the decision to release ‘little boy’ on Hiroshima. We saw clothes which had been found after the explosion, toys, photos of survivors and parts of buildings with shadows etched into them as men suddenly evaporated. It is such a scary feeling to see that a city and nearly all its inhabitants were wiped out in a single second but it’s even scarier to acknowledge that it could happen again.
On Saturday morning, the horrific effects of the atomic bomb were rendered more real. Text book language, facts and figures were turned into an eye witness account when we were given the chance to speak to one of these survivors. 8 years old at the time of the blast she recounted how she has seen people so badly burnt that you were unable to tell if they were male or female. She had seen a burnt black figure standing upright with its eyes popped out of its socket and how her brother, badly burnt lay in a bush as maggots grew in his wounds for lack of medicine and treatment. Her mother conducted a daily vigil walking to town to look for her other daughter who was missing but was never found. She also told us how they were able to look as far out to the sea across a land which was once covered with life, house, buildings and movement.
While this story was gruesome enough what struck me the most were the after effects! I had thought a lot about the bomb, the shock, the scariness of it all but never wondered what the survivors did afterwards: they had not known it was a bomb and had no way of knowing. They were unaware that Nagasaki had also been bombed and thought that they had some form if disease. They were suffering in the height of summer, were thirsty and lacked food, medicine and help and when it did come it was too late. The Americans came and occupied the land. A press stop meant that they were not allowed or able to talk about what had happened and so not only did they not understand but the outside world never knew the real effects either. They were not informed about the radiation poisoning until years later and were shunned from Japanese society because they were believed to be contagious, de-formed ill beings. Orphaned children who came back to Hiroshima came back to nothing and no one and were taken in by local gangs who forced them to steal, kill and commit crimes in order to survive. The bomb was never to be talked about and shanty towns were built with pieces of material in the place which is now the Peace memorial Park.
Hiroshima is a shockingly sad story but an eye opening one which must be read about and heard by all. If you can I would say do it soon before the remaining survivors fade away; a real life account far out weighs what you will ever read in books, online or in museums. To speak to someone who has seen so much destruction but has the strength to talk about it, forgive the perpetrators and protest for an anti-nuclear world is truly awe inspiring. The sense and desire for peace reigns heavily in Hiroshima but the number of nuclear warheads, parades and irrationally placed spending on nuclear armoury much outweighs the efforts to prevent such another catastrophe. Nuclear weapons are still being made, still being tested and still being funded. The effects of another nuclear bomb need to be seen and understood and another one will cause much greater damage than the terrible monstrosities which the two have already caused in Japan.
The desire for military, economical and political power all render our world a volatile and fragile one and thus I have felt the need to recount what I have seen and wish to spread some of this sad story. Hiroshima is a city built on terrible memories that can never be hidden and never should be hidden under concrete and paint and I write this blog this evening, hoping to help in some small way. Please go to Hiroshima and see what destruction man can inflict or please, look online at the horrors which can occur, think about the world and take some time to maybe write a letter or an email of protest and show the leaders that we think that something really should be done to save mankind from another bright light, smoke and bang which would kill and ruin thousands and thousands of lives.
