By
Nancy T. Lu
Mention
Hiroshima and memories of the bombing of the city by the United
States on August 6, 1945, are revived. Another bombing just days
after, this time of Nagasaki, brought Japan to its knees during the
final days of World War II. The country’s unforgettable wartime
atrocities and defeat forced it to face postwar constraints imposed
by the American Army.
Yet
today, the government of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is arguing for the
expansion of its military role by going to the extent of
reinterpreting Japan’s Constitution. Many – Japanese and
non-Japanese included – find such controversial shift in his
politics unacceptable. Japanese high school students very
recently were at the center of a loud protest against alarming
Japanese policy of militarization under the leadership of Abe. Abe on the occasion marking the 70th anniversary of Japanese surrender on August 15, 1945 expressed "profound grief" but avoided outright apology over atrocities committed by the Japanese Imperial Army during the Second World War. Abe, too, has been pushing for the Japanese Diet's passing of security bills to alter the pacifist Constitution, resulting in strong protests by the Japanese people fearing their country's being dragged by the U.S. into fighting wars abroad that do not directly involve them in the future.
Years
ago, I had the opportunity to visit Hiroshima. This was the city over
which burst the first atom bomb on August 6, 1945. Here was raised
the curtain of the tragedy of mankind’s entry into the nuclear age.
Like
other Japanese cities, Hiroshima – meaning “wide island” – is
full of modern buildings. Its hardworking inhabitants have succeeded
in rebuilding it from the ashes of the last world war.
To
enter Hiroshima is to discover that the road leads directly to the
Hiroshima Peace Memorial. The bombed-out dome draws visitors to it
with full magnetic force.
The
lush foliage of the trees in the famous park strangely says little of
the city’s traumatic history. But the haunting sadness in the air
is almost palpable.
Some
13,000 square kilometers of Hiroshima was destroyed 69 years ago.
Some 200,000 people who made up half of Hiroshima’s population died
as a result of the bombing of this seat of Japanese military forces.
At
the time of my visit, there were still card-bearing survivors of the
grim experience. Akihiro Takahashi, the director of the Hiroshima
Peace Memorial Museum, was one of them.
To
meet Takahashi was to be challenged to probe an inscrutable Japanese
face. He was only 17 years old when the city he called home had its
rendezvous with Fate. The quiet fellow who never married had a
deformed left ear. When he rolled up one sleeve of his shirt, there
were tell-tale scars of his horrifying experience. He had undergone
surgeries to remove shrapnels and fragments imbedded in his skin. The
keloids which bothered bomb survivors were his problem, too. His
nails were likewise affected permanently.
Takahashi
personally guided visitors around the eerie museum which reverberated
with the anguish of the atomic bomb victims. Photographic blow-ups of
the mushroom cloud which formed immediately after the atomic
explosion were particularly horrifying to see in the gallery with
graphic glimpses of a city in shambles in the aftermath of the
bombing.
Keiko
Yamanouchi, a Japanese friend, recalled during the visit to Hiroshima
how her family was spared this tragedy because her father was posted
in China at that time. With him in China then were his wife and
children. But the ghosts of the bombing incident included some of her
relatives. They sealed their destiny by rushing to the beleaguered
city to look for their loved ones as soon as news of the attack broke
out. They became victims of atomic radiation.
Supported
by photographs, life-size displays in the museum depicted in detail
the tragedy that visited a people. With the detonation of the bomb, a
fireball developed in the air. The thermal radiation of ultraviolet
rays gave rise to a burning fire. This led to the victims’ loss of
eyesight and heat burns on their bodies.
Thermal
radiation heat burns on exposed human skin were observed in
individuals who were as far as 3.5 kilometers from the hypocenter,
the area where the bomb hit the ground. Within a one-kilometer radius
from the hypocenter, most of those who sustained fatal heat burns
died either on the day of exposure or just a few days afterward.
Their intestines and other internal organs were seriously ruptured,
too.
Men,
women and children within a certain radius of the hypocenter were
seen stripped of their clothes or found half-naked after the attack.
Their flesh melted like wax because of the heat. The frantic search
for loved ones took place everywhere. But very often, relatives
passed by each other without any sign of recognition.
As
told in one picture, the blast left the shadow of a valve clearly
burned and imprinted on a gas tank behind it. A human shadow was
likewise found on the steps at the entrance to the Sumitomo Bank.
Before they were destroyed, the leaves of a plant cast a permanent
shadow on an electric post near the Meiji Bridge. Dark patterns of a
kimono were transferred to the skin of the wearer as a result of the
intense heat.
The
city was taken totally by surprise. The most unfortunate were those
who were caught in the path of direct thermal radiation. Being in the
shadow of a concrete post at the time of the bombing meant being
protected to some extent.
According
to reports, granite stones within one kilometer of the hypocenter
melted in the heat. Roof tiles within 600 meters of the hypocenter
developed glass bubbles. Old and huge trees stood with their inside
burned.
The
blast blew people off the ground for several meters. Even those
inside houses were carried away by the impact of the bombing.
Many
who got trapped in buildings burned to death. Others were injured by
deeply penetrating broken glass shards and fragments.
Wooden
houses within a radius of 2.3 kilometers were almost totally razed to
the ground. Concrete buildings around the hypocenter were suddenly
without any ceiling. Doors and windows were blown away. Fires raged
even inside edifices outside a radius of one kilometer. It was
believed that 60 per cent of the deaths were caused by thermal
radiation burns. A tour guide described how people jumped into the
river to seek relief from the burns only to drown.
Residual
contamination affected those who resided within the radioactive
range. “Black rain” fell on the western part of the city. Thus,
even in areas quite remote from the hypocenter, strong residual
radioactivity was detected. Considerable damage was sustained.
That
autumn and winter, the survivors showed various symptoms of acute
sickness such as nausea, diarrhea, weakness and bloody discharge.
Aside
from causing destruction and bodily harm, the unprecedented bombing
brought about the breakup and separation of families and relatives.
With the disintegration of neighboring community and society, the
start of the rehabilitation of survivors proved very difficult.
For
months, the blighted landscape raised doubts on the future of
Hiroshima. Would plants ever grow again on the destroyed land? Many
thought that no life would ever thrive again on this stretch of
wasteland. However with the coming of spring the following year, tiny
shoots brought hope once more to the scorched earth and the people
there.
Perhaps
more people should visit Hiroshima to be moved to help give peace a
chance in this troubled world. Japanese schoolchildren, in fact, are
awakened to the price of war and aggression during educational trips
to Hiroshima.
Daily
stories of nations fighting and of war zones being created on
different continents not just with the involvement of militiamen but
also with the intervention of world leaders engaged dangerously in
global politics have been increasing. Despite crippling sanctions by
the West, power figures of smaller countries like Iran and North
Korea have not been stopped from going ahead in developing nuclear
weapons that will bring the world closer to a holocaust.
Hawks
are dramatically taking over the reins of governments. The doves are
too weak to be heard. All told, let Hiroshima be a city of reminders
in a war-prone world. Or is it asking too much?
