Hiroshima Day – An Unforgettable Past !

The U.S. Secretary of Defense (SecDef) is the leader & CEO of the U.S. Department of Defense, the executive department of the U.S. Armed Forces and currently it is being held by General Lloyd Austin. General Austin recently hinted towards changing the nuclear football (Briefcase containing nuclear codes which are approved by U.S. President) to a much safer and less fancy one.

Talking about Nuclear Football, you might be pondering over how many countries have used nuclear weapons till date ?

The answer is - Only one (U.S.A.)

That's right, Hiroshima at 08:15 am, on August 06th, 1945 became the experimental ground for the ‘Manhattan Project’, led by Robert Oppenheimer. On this day, U.S. ‘Boeing-29 Superfortress Enola Gay’ heavy bomber dropped approximately a 64 kg enriched uranium fission bomb named “Little Boy” on Hiroshima City, which was equivalent to 12,000 to 15,000 tons of TNT over an area of 13 square km. The other one being “Fat man” dropped on Nagasaki on August 09th, 1945.

These bombings might have ended the World War II, but at what cost did the allies came out on top ?

The recorded death tolls are estimates, but it is thought that about 1,40,000 of Hiroshima's 3,50,000 population were killed in the blast, and that at least 74,000 people died in Nagasaki. The nuclear radiation released by the bombs caused thousands more people to die from radiation sickness in the weeks, months and years that followed.

The bombings brought about an abrupt end to the war in Asia, with Imperial Japanese Emperor Hirohoto surrendering unconditionally to the Allies on August 15th, 1945 via radio, citing the devastating power of “a new and a cruel bomb”. Almost every time the U.S.A is associated with wiping out such an enormous population within no time, but did you know that the United Kingdom was also involved in it ? Yes, The consent of the United Kingdom was obtained for the bombing, as a result of the “Quebec Agreement”, and orders were issued on July 25th, 1945 for atomic bombs to be used against Hiroshima, Kokura, Niigata, and Nagasaki.

But what do the survivors have to say about those dreadful moments of hanging between life and death ?

For the survivors of those ruined cities, the coming of the bomb was a personal event before it was a global one.

EMIKO OKADA :-

An 08 years old girl who was merely 2.8 km away from ground zero recalls those moments as “I was eight when the bomb dropped. My older sister was 12. She left early that morning to work on a ‘tatemono sokai’ (building demolition) site and never came home. My parents searched for her for months and months. They never found her remains. My parents refused to send an obituary notice until the day that they died, in hopes that she was healthy and alive somewhere, somehow.

I too was affected by the radiation and vomited profusely after the bomb attack.

My hair fell out, my gums bled, and I was too ill to attend school. My grandmother lamented the suffering of her children and grandchildren and prayed how cruel, how so very cruel, if only it weren’t for the pika-don (phonetic name for the atomic bomb). This was a stock phrase of hers until the day that she died.

The war was caused by the selfish misdeeds of adults. Many children fell victim because of it. Alas, this is still the case today. Us adults must do everything we can to protect the lives and dignity of our children. Children are our greatest blessing.”

FUJIO TORIKOSHI :-

A 14 year old boy who was 2 km away from hypocentre (ground zero) recalls it as “On that morning, I was preparing to go to the hospital with my mother. I had been diagnosed with ‘kakke’ (vitamin deficiency) a few days earlier and had taken the day off school to get a medical exam. As my mother and I were eating breakfast, I heard the deep rumble of engines overhead. Our ears were trained back then; I knew it was a B-29 immediately. I stepped out into the field out front but saw no planes.

Bewildered, I glanced to the northeast. I saw a black dot in the sky. Suddenly, it ‘burst’ into a ball of blinding light that filled my surroundings. A gust of hot wind hit my face; I instantly closed my eyes and knelt down to the ground. As I tried to gain footing, another gust of wind lifted me up and I hit something hard. I do not remember what happened after that.

When I finally came to, I passed out in front of a ‘bouka suisou’ (a stone water container used to extinguish fires back then). Suddenly, I felt an intense burning sensation on my face and arms, and tried to dunk my body into the bouka suisou. The water made it worse. I heard my mother’s voice in the distance. ‘Fujio ! Fujio !’ I clung to her desperately as she scooped me up in her arms. ‘It burns, mama ! It burns!’

I drifted in and out of consciousness for the next few days. My face swelled up so badly that I could not open my eyes. I was treated briefly at an air raid shelter and later at a hospital in Hatsukaichi, and was eventually brought home wrapped in bandages all over my body. I was unconscious for the next few days, fighting a high fever. I finally woke up to a stream of light filtering in through the bandages over my eyes and my mother sitting beside me, playing a lullaby on her harmonica.

I was told that I had until about age 20 to live. Yet here I am seven decades later, aged 86. All I want to do is forget, but the prominent keloid scar on my neck is a daily reminder of the atomic bomb. We can't continue to sacrifice precious lives to warfare. All I can do is pray – earnestly, relentlessly – for world peace.”

RYOUGA SUWA :-

An 11 years old boy who had entered the affected area after the bombing and was exposed to radiation recalls it as “I am the 16th generation chief priest of Johoji Temple in Otemachi. The original Johoji Temple was within 500m of the hypocenter. It was instantly destroyed, along with the 1300 households that used to make up the area that is now called ‘Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park’. My parents remain missing to this day and my sister Reiko was pronounced dead.

I, on the other hand, was evacuated in Miyoshi-shi, 50km away from the hypocenter. I am what you would call a ‘genbaku-koji’ (atomic bomb orphan). I was 12 years old at the time. When I returned to Hiroshima on September 16th – a month and 10 days after the bomb attack; what remained of the property was ‘a cluster of overturned tombstones from the temple cemetery’. Hiroshima was a flat wasteland. I remember feeling shocked that I could make out the Setonai Islands in the distance, which used to be inhibited by buildings.

We practice an anti-war & anti-nuclear weapons philosophy here and have partnered with the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park every year to coordinate lectures and events and pursue hibaku building restoration projects.”

Has humanity learnt anything from it ?

Seems so ! But how ?

Establishment of UN :-

The UN Charter signed on June 26th, 1945 was brought into force on October 24th, 1945 in New York City, with the aim to maintain international peace and security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be a centre for harmonizing the actions of nations. With 193 members and 2 observer states, it is indeed a fact that wars continued to happen – India itself was put into 5 wars, Israel has fought 8 recognised wars till date and the list goes on…

Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons or Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) :-

It is an international treaty whose objectives are the following :

• Prevent the spread of nuclear weapons and weapons technology.

• Promote cooperation in the peaceful uses of nuclear energy.

• Fulfill the goal of achieving nuclear disarmament and general and complete disarmament.

Open for signatures in 1968, the treaty came into effect in 1970, with India, Pakistan, Israel, as South Sudan as non-signatories, North Korea on the other hand withdrew from it in 2003 after becoming a signatory to it.

Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW), or the Nuclear Weapons Ban Treaty (NWBT) :-

Entered into force on January 21st, 2021, it is the first legally binding international agreement to comprehensively prohibit nuclear weapons with the ultimate goal being their total elimination. Major countries including the USA, India, Canada, China, Russia, etc have refused to comply with the same. For those nations that are party to it, the treaty prohibits the development, testing, production, stockpiling, stationing, transfer, use and threat of use of nuclear weapons, as well as assistance and encouragement to the prohibited activities.

How Japan overcame these wounds ?

Despite of a dreadful past, Japan has come a long way in terms of overall development as a country, as well as, restoration of their heritage and culture.

• In 2021, Japan has ranked 25th in GDP per capita ranking in nominal and PPP terms ($42,932), which is the primary reason behind their flourishing standards of living.

• Japan also enjoys a prestigious rank of 19th in Human Development Index 2020 by United Nations Development Programmes, which again contributes to robust standards of living.

• Japan has dominated the reputed Henley’s Passport Index by securing rank 1st, which means that if you have Japanese Passport, then there's no need to have Visa in 193 countries. This is a sheer result of intensive infrastructural development and politeness of Japanese people throughout the globe.

• The level of politeness is regimented and is taught intentionally even from the moment a child enters school, by printing a guide for students to follow when they enter the faculty room. ‘It tells them what to say and how’, the basic etiquettes of social interaction. Teachers strictly impose this rule and would ask any student to repeat the whole thing until they get it right.

• Communal areas and even trains are filled with posters espousing good manners and explaining how this could benefit society. Image is very important in Japan, which is why they take pains in ensuring each interaction is pleasant. Otherwise, any negative feedback, no matter how small can affect their social standing.

• Japan preserved its culture by incorporating it into their curriculum at school. But historically strict immigration laws followed by adherence to tradition has allowed Japan to be what it is today.

• Sports in Japan are a significant part of Japanese culture. Both traditional sports such as ‘Sumo’ & ‘Martial Arts’, and Western imports like ‘Baseball’ and association ‘Football’, are popular with both participants and spectators. As popularity of a sport in a country depends on its reach within the population, infrastructure available and emphasis laid on its progress, Japan, as a result, has been among one of the best performers at all global sporting events.

It doesn't matter how the incumbent generation of analysts, historians, war veterans, etc assess the scenario(s) that led to Hiroshima (And Nagasaki) bombing(s), it's the people who were left to deal with the scars and the cost to be paid by generations to come !