OK, time for a real blog I guess...
I think all of you know the story... on 8:15 am, August 6, 1945... approximately 64 years ago today... Little Boy, a Uranium bomb, was dropped from a B-29
Superfortress plane,
Enola Gay.
And this is what happened... Hiroshima BEFORE
... and a few seconds after...
We went to the Peace Memorial Service yesterday... held each year on Aug 6, the anniversary of the A-bomb drop... we scheduled to meet up with one of Rebecca's students for the service. Victor was a great person to spend the day with as...
- he's a great guy
- his English is pretty good (he tells us he's got a good teacher)
- he's a volunteer guide so he knows the city very well (the reason he started learning English).
- he's lived in Hiroshima his entire 64.5 year life... yup, he was just 6 mo. old and only 1.5 km from the epicenter when the bomb exploded. He believes that he is alive today because his mother had shielded him from the blast. His elder sister, who was in the adjacent room was not so lucky and perished instantly.
- And he thought Moses is Mingus...
Victor,
Kimbo and I
in front of the A-bomb dome.
The memorial service was well attended, organized... and included releasing of pigeons (maybe the doves don't like the humidity?) and from one of the speeches I learned a new word, "
Obamajority"... (I thought for a sec that this jargon has reached main stream but after googling and seeing mostly
Japanese web pages come up, I know it's made up at the memorial...) Earlier this year in Prague, President Obama stated that he would like to see a
world without nuclear weapons. And Hiroshima, a city proud to be leading the anti-nuclear weapons movement is behind Obama 100% ... or more succinctly, "Hiroshima is in the
Obamajority."
The peace service took place at the Cenotaph at the Peace Park, in front of the Peace Museum. The famous Peace Museum is highly recommended... many people say you should visit at least once in your life... and I agree... a very emotional place.
If you ever pick up the book,
Dave Barry Does Japan... you'll find it very interesting, somewhat insightful, and mostly humorous. "Mostly" except for one short chapter (6 pages) on Hiroshima.... here's a paragraph expressing his thoughts after a visit to the peace museum: "I don't know if it's possible to justify what happened to Hiroshima - I certainly wouldn't try to justify it to the victims' families. But I found myself wanting to shout to the other museum visitors: Do you know WHY my country did this? Do you wonder what would make a civilized country do such a thing? I'm not sure that
I know the answer, but the museum doesn't even address the question. And I don't think that just saying "No more
Hiroshimas" over and over again, like a mantra, is enough to guarantee that it will never happen again..."
here's the 3 amigos a few weeks before with the museum behind us... (ha I've got the same clothes on...)
The newly opened wing of the museum (new since Dave's last visit for sure) definitely attempts to addresses his question, but nevertheless I have to admit I left with the same feelings as Dave Barry. Leonard Bernstein put it in his own words...
..."too many words already, not enough action..."
And like Leo, upon exiting the museum I was overcome by the urgency to act, to do, to start some revolution or
something... but you just feel so powerless. And after a few days I think the most we can do is to educate and empower (and elect good politicians), as you realize that mainly it's up to the "superpowers" to
negotiate terms on their own. And by celebrating peace, and honoring this city that has rebuilt itself so quickly from complete devastation you are doing the most.
On the news a few days ago (while
WWOOFing in Okayama), the news reported a findings from a poll that 60% of the US general population thought dropping the bomb was the right thing to do, about 20% thought it was the wrong thing, and the rest "didn't know"... with the older population having a higher percentage in the "right" category. I was a little
surprised not by the high percentage saying that they'd drop the bomb, but by the high percentage that actually had an answer. During
wartime, logic and fairness can get thrown out the window, and no one knows what is the "right" thing to do... I don't know the answer to the question of dropping the bomb... but I peace and no nukes are easy to back up... (btw... the nukes they have these days are 3000 times more powerful than Little Boy... think about that... Little Boy alone is responsible for over 200,000 lives...)
After the peace memorial service (with speeches from Prime Minister
Aso, the mayor, secretary general of UN, etc...) Victor took us to a tea garden near by, where we talked for a bit, and soon we started talking about our beliefs. Victor told us he's not religious, but believes in fate. That somehow his city was meant to be destroyed, rebuilt, and that so many tragic events had to happen, that it was already
predetermined... I think I understand... after seeing so many innocent lives drastically changed or expired in the blink of an eye... it would be difficult not to.
A watch, stopped 64 years ago by Little Boy... 8.15 am
Later that evening, we went back to the A-bomb dome to watch peace lanterns being released on the river. I've see many beautiful pics from Becca of this event, but being there, sitting on the river bank watching thousands of lanterns float up the river (it was a flood tide) it's impossible to convey in a picture.
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