Hiroshima and Nagasaki
PEACE STATUE NAGASAKI:The statue's raised right hand pointing to the sky symbolises the threat of nuclear weapons, his flat, outstretched left hand represents eternal peace, and his eyes are closed in prayer asking that the souls of the victims may rest in peace.
Since early childhood we have all heard of the devastation caused by the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki at the end of World War 11. On August the 6th 1945, the United States used a massive, atomic weapon against Hiroshima, Japan at 8.15 a.m. The bomb the equivalent of 20,000 tons of TNT, flattened the city, killing tens of thousands of citizens. While Japan was still trying to comprehend this devastation three days later on August 9th at 11.02, the United States struck again, this time dropping another B-29 plutonium bomb on Nagasaki.
During my recent visit with teacher friends from different parts of the country, the last surviving member of the U.S. 12 man crew on this secret mission died at the age of 93. Theodore Van Kirk lived in Georgia and was the navigator on the Enola Gay, the B-29 – the first atomic bomb deployed in wartime over Hiroshima.
At 2.45a.m, on Monday August 6th 1945, the Enola Gay took off from Tinian, a North Pacific island in the Marianas, 1,500 miles south of Japan. Paul Tibbets, the pilot nicknamed the B-29 ‘Enola Gay’ after his mother and the name was painted on the side just before take off. Two other bombers carried cameras and a variety of measuring devices escorted the plane. The ten foot 9,000 pound atomic bomb hung on a hook in the ceiling of the plane. The crew named the bomb ‘Little Boy’. According to Van Kirk ‘As the ‘Little Boy’ fell toward the sleeping city, he and his crew hoped to escape with their lives. They didn’t know whether the bomb would work and, if it did, whether its shock waves would rip their plane to shreds. Captain William Parsons was instrumental in the development of the bomb and he was responsible for arming the bomb while in flight. It took 15 minutes to arm it. No warning was given in order to save face in case the bomb malfunctioned.”
The tail gunner George Caron described what he saw. “The poisonous mushroom cloud itself was a spectacular sight, a bubbling mass of purple gray smoke with a red core in it and everything burning inside. It looked like lava or molasses covering the whole city. The cloud is estimated to have reached a height of 40,000 feet. We could no longer see the city. Black smoke and raging fires shot up from the heart of the city and crept up the mountains. The blast and its after effects killed 140,000 people in Hiroshima that day. 60,000 of the 90,000 buildings were demolished.
Survivors have described what they saw – ‘People were like walking ghosts with no hair, the hands of the dead seem to be trying to grasp the air or trying to escape the raging flames, their seared skin hanging in strips: a policeman treats burns with oil soaked rags, a child’s face is swollen with deep red scars – the effect of burns from radiation, somebody laid a white cloth over it: charred bodies are strewn everywhere: a man who died on the spot lies with one hand pointing to the sky. Blue flames rise from his fingers and liquid the colour of Indian ink oozes forth: a mother tries to flee with her headless child, a girl her clothes hanging in strips and her hair standing out like needles on a porcupine which seemed to be the condition of many of the victims staggers by.”
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| A mother shields her child. |
Shortly after the bombing the Black Rain began to fall. A group of girls led by their teacher, their clothes stripped off sought shelter in the Elementary School. Dr Takashi Nagai author of ‘Leaving My Beloved Children Behind’ who had been researching the effects of radiation for 13 years prior to the dropping of the bomb said, ’I saw a blinding flash of light from my radium lab. In front of my very eyes, my beloved university at Nagasaki, along with my beloved students became on big huge ball of fire. My wife was reduced to a light bucketful of bones that I had to pick up from the ruins of our house. She had died in the kitchen.” He contacted an acute radiation sickness which he later died from in his late 40’s. By a stroke of luck he had sent his children to live with their grandmother in the hills for the month of august.
In Nagasaki no plants bloomed for the next two years. In the third year, they started to bloom but the flowers were strangely deformed. 69 years after the atrocity many of those who managed to survive suffered irreparable physical and psychological damage and still suffer the effects to this day. People began to complain and many were admitted to hospital seriously ill with purple spots from hypodermal bleeding all over their bodies with hair falling off and gums bleeding. Frequent coughing made breathing difficult which hastened their untimely demise.
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| Atomic Dome Hiroshima - formerly the Dept. of Industry |
The crews that dropped the atomic bombs were seen by Americans as saviours for ending the war. August 15th Japan surrendered bringing World War 11 to an end. But over the years the morality of atomic warfare and the need for bombings had been questioned. Van Kirk maintained, ‘we were fighting an enemy that had a reputation for never surrendering never accepting defeat. It is really hard to talk about morality and war in the same sentence. Where was morality in the bombing of Coventry, Dresden or the Bataan Death March or the rape of Nanking or the bombing of Pearl Habour?’ I believe he said, ’that when you’re in a war, a nation must have the courage to do what it must to win the war with a minimum loss of life.’
We visited the Peace Memorial Museums at Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The Peace Statue at Nagasaki is highly symbolic – the right hand points skyward to warn of the threat of nuclear bombs, the left hand stretches out horizontally to symbolise world peace and the lightly closed eyes represent a prayer for the repose of the souls of all bomb
victims. Each of the items displayed in the museums embodies the grief, anger, or pain of real people. Having now recovered from the atomic bomb calamity, Hiroshima’s deepest wish is the elimination of all nuclear weapons and the realization of a genuinely peaceful and international community. As we signed petitions organized by the high school students we were reminded of President Obama’s desire to seek a nuclear free world when he said recently in Prague, ‘So long as nuclear weapons exist, we are not truly safe.’
NEVER REPEAT THE SAME MISTAKE AGAIN!
Mary Kyne August 2014
