The Written Word
for August 8,1999

54 years ago the first atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima. 25 years ago I visited Hiroshima and the experience was seared in my brain for life.

At the time the bomb was dropped it was assumed that the war would go on for at least another year, perhaps two. It was also assumed that Japan would not surrender; that she would have to be conquered foot by foot which would have involved a huge bloodletting on both sides. The Japanese could be expected to defend their homeland with suicidal tenacity.

After the decision to drop the bomb was made, Harry Truman, only a few months into his presidency after the death of Franklin Roosevelt, had no qualms whatever. He said he made the decision and slept like a baby.

Whether the bomb should have been dropped or not remains a great controversy. Even more controversial was the decision to drop yet another three days later on Nagasaki. It is not my purpose to get into that debate today but just to recall my own memories of what I saw that beautiful Fall day in 1979.

As you go into the Peace Gardens, to your left is the museum. Straight ahead, at the end of a very long mall, there is a building in the background with just the struts of the dome remaining. They call that Atom Bomb Dome, a permanent reminder of the day from hell. As you walk through this beautiful park you come to a huge mound on your left. Surrounding it is a railing upon which there are scores of tumblers of water. It’s called the hill of 10,000 souls containing as it does, some 10,000 bodies. The water is to quench the thirst of those who died in the fiery holocaust.

The museum is a very tough thing to do – but of course you must. There are the horrible murals showing shrieking people burning to death. And there are the horrible pictures of the damage done. And the statistics, still growing, of those killed by the blast.

But there are two horrible images which stay with you – at least they certainly stayed with me. There is the replica of the bomb itself – not very big … perhaps four or five feet tall looking like the "fat boy" it was called. But you gaze upon this dark gray object and wonder how so small an object could have caused so much damage.

It was said that Hiroshima was a vital industrial target – it was not. The nearest military object was a prison camp full of allied prisoners of war.

It was said that the bomb was not meant to harm any more civilians than necessary – it was dropped just after 8:00AM, in rush hour on a work day right over the business center of town.

Which leads me to the worst image left by a visitor to the museum.

In it is a piece of granite … it was part of a bank … a part that jutted into the sidewalk where people used to sit while waiting for the bank to open. This piece of granite from a downtown Hiroshima bank has the shadow of a man etched on it – rather more accurately, burned on it.

Bombs larger than this one are now in the hands of many nations and within reach of many others. Bombs several hundred times more explosive are in the hands of the United States, Britain, France and, of course, the old Soviet Union.

It makes one tremble. It especially makes anyone who has been to Hiroshima tremble. And what is even more scary, because it all happened so long ago, most of the world doesn’t remember what it was like 54 years ago that sunny morning in August in Hiroshima, Japan.