Hiroshima

 Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum photo-album 

 

Updated on August 6 2203 

At exactly fifteen minutes past eight in the morning, on August 6, 1945, Japanese time, at the moment when the atomic bomb flashed above Hiroshima. We know that 200,00 people perish immediately or some later  giving a painful history.  However, Visiting the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum can evoke a wide range of emotions in people. The museum is a powerful and emotional experience for many visitors, as it presents the devastating impact of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and the human suffering that followed.   There a wide range of emotion of Sadness, empathy, anger and revusion.

See the kid's tricycle, watched, charred bodies stire the emotion. The story of  Sadako Sasaki remind  the post-bomb effect where  surviors had even worse fate than the dead.  Sadako was a Japanese girl who became a victim of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki by the United States. She was two years of age when the bombs were dropped and was severely irradiated. She survived for another ten years, becoming one of the most widely known hibakusha—a Japanese term meaning "bomb-affected person. She suffered from swelling, Leukemia later. 

It is difficult to articulate the feeling. We know from John Hersey’s classic Hiroshima that as day dawned on that August morning, the city was full of courageous undertakings meant to increase the town’s collective capacity for self-defense against conventional warfare, such as the clearing of fire lanes by hundreds of young school girls, many of whom would instantly vanish in the 6,000° C temperature of the initial flash, and others of whom, more distant from the center, would retain their lives but lose their faces.2 The bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki initiated an era in which—for the first time on Earth and now continuing for seven and a half decades—humankind collectively and summarily lost the right to self-defense.

The writings at the guest book of the visitors are  very powerful . Several one convey  that world owes  a deep apology to Hiroshima. There is a popular theory that without the bomb Japan would not have surrendered soon  and would have resulted in more bloodshed.  Oppenhimer and his fellow scientists as well comments in the guestbook reject this teory. 

I am learning more  through the film  Oppenhimer  and books based on his life. 

References 

1. Hiroshima by John Hersey  The actual story of six indivduals on the day of the bomb attack.

 The perspective [Hiroshima] offers from the bomb’s actual victims is the mandatory counterpart to any Oppenheimer viewing." —GQ Magazine

2) ) Gujarati Poet Tushar Shukla  has written a vert good poem after  his visiting Hiroshma. 

૬ ઓગસ્ટ ૧૯૪૫ પછી હું આવ્યો છું 

પ્રાયશ્ચિત કરવા.

તે દિવસે સવારે તું ધબકતું હતું

ને મેં ઝીંક્યો હતો બોમ્બ..

એટમ બોમ્બ..

તારે માટે જ નહીં મારે માટે પણ એ પહેલવહેલો અનુભવ હતો,

વિનાશક શક્તિનો.

બોમ્બ પડ્યો ત્યારે બંધ થઇ ગયેલી 

ને તે પહેલાં 

કોઇના ખિસ્સામાં ટક ટક ટક ચાલતી

 ને એને ચલાવતી 

બંધ થઇ ગયેલી ઘડિયાળ 

હું જોઇને આવ્યો છું .

સ્થિર થઇ ગયો છે એમાં સમય : ૮.૧૫..

એક ઝળહળાટ પછી અંધાર..

આકાશે ચડેલું એ વાદળ ..

આટલા વિનાશક વાદળને

શા માટે કહેવું જોઇએ મુલાયમ મશરુમ ?

ને પછી વરસ્યો કાળો વરસાદ..

આજે મેં જોયા એના અવશેષ.

બળેલા ક્ષત વિક્ષત શરીરોની તસ્વીર.. 

કોઇના શરીર પર તે દિવસે શોભતાં હશે આ અર્ધ બળેલા ,વસ્ત્ર..!

ને આ કોઇ મુગ્ધાના વાળની લટ ,

એની માએ ઓળ્યા હશે એ વાળ?

પિતાએ ફેરવ્યો હશે એ પર હાથ ?

પ્રિયના વિચારમાં ખેલતી હશે એની આંગળીઓ એ અલકલટ સાથે?

એ વાળની લટ આજે અહીં આમ પડી છે 

કાચની પાછળ .

કોઇ બાળકના પગે પહેરાઇને દોડવાને બદલે અહીં પગ વગર ક્યાંથી પહોંચ્યા તમે, હે બૂટ ?

ગૃહિણીના સ્પર્ષે ઉટકાઇને ઉજળી રહેતી હશે ક્યારેક આ કાળી પડેલી ઘરવખરી.

શું શું નથી હોતું એક ઘરમાં..

પરિવારમાં !

અરે, ઘરની ભીંત ને છત છજાંના આ અવશેષ..

કેટ કેટલું જીવાયું હશે એની નીચે!

અરે,

ભગવાન પણ પીગળી ગયેલા મેં જોયા એ અસહ્ય ગરમીમાં..!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v6GxuBOKs6U  very beautiful recitation  with deep feeling  by the poet himself on the Hiroshima day.  

3) Poem with similar sentiments 

 

In the land of the rising sun, a city once stood,

Hiroshima, its name, known for both bad and good.

A tale of tragedy, a moment of despair,

Yet also a promise, a plea in the air.

Amidst the vibrant streets, a darkness did descend,

An August day, when life seemed to bend.

A haunting flash, a blinding light,

In an instant, hopes vanished from sight.

A city shattered, a people torn,

By the cruel hands of war, so worn.

The mushroom cloud rose, a chilling sight,

As darkness engulfed the morning light.

But from the ashes, a pledge did rise,

To ensure such horrors, we'd never reprise.

A vow to cherish life, embrace the dove,

And build a world filled with peace and love.

With tears in their eyes and pain in their hearts,

They united as one, determined to restart.

To rebuild their city, mend broken ties,

And let their spirits soar, like the birds in the skies.

From this devastation, a promise was born,

To ensure no more cities would be torn.

A world united, standing hand in hand,

To safeguard the future of our precious land.

So let us remember Hiroshima's past,

A tragic reminder that love must outlast.

And with hearts open wide, let's take a stand,

For peace, forever, throughout every land.

4) 

The peace bell has scripting in Devnagari Sanskrit. Need toto be deciphered. 

https://twitter.com/RajeevSrinivasa/status/1172436206593773568