Hiroshima Remembered

[Llew]

Anniversaries of many of the important events of past wars tend to be commemorated quite frequently these days, especially in the various media.

The detonating of the first atomic bomb over a civilian population is justly remembered at this time, and whatever the circumstances that led up to the decision by the US to carry out the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the consequencies and aftermath were terrible for the people of those cities.

I visited Hiroshima some years ago, and the sight of the exhibits in the Peace Museum still burn in my memory.

The lesson has not been learnt - many nations, some politically unstable, hold nuclear weapons many times of course more powerful than those first atomic bombs, and it just takes one stupid act to start a nuclear meltdown.

I'm no unilateral 'Ban the Bomb' nut, I may even be politically naive when it comes to the nuclear question, but that museum frightened the life out of me.

Llew

 

[john_graydon]

Anniversaries of many of the important events of past wars tend to be commemorated quite frequently these days, especially in the various media.

The detonating of the first atomic bomb over a civilian population is justly remembered at this time, and whatever the circumstances that led up to the decision by the US to carry out the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the consequencies and aftermath were terrible for the people of those cities.

I visited Hiroshima some years ago, and the sight of the exhibits in the Peace Museum still burn in my memory.

The lesson has not been learnt - many nations, some politically unstable, hold nuclear weapons many times of course more powerful than those first atomic bombs, and it just takes one stupid act to start a nuclear meltdown.

I'm no unilateral 'Ban the Bomb' nut, I may even be politically naive when it comes to the nuclear question, but that museum frightened the life out of me.

Llew

Protesters were outside American Embassy here in Dublin the other day Letting them know they have`nt forgotten.

 

[brewby]

My partners late father was an RAF engineer sent to Hiroshima just after the bomb and we were looking at a large number of photographs he took whilst there these are not the ones you would see in the media, more a personal record of his time there, not a pretty sight although fascinating to look through. The Japanese civilians all seemed to accept their presence and were grateful for their help in getting the city back on it's feet. Let's all hope it will never happen again, it brought tears to his eyes every time he talked about it.

 

[rolfw]

We will never know whether it facilitated a net saving of lives, but that was certainly the intention at the time by forcing an immediate surrender.

The only thing we know for sure is that we never want to see it happen again and perhaps the sight of the devastation caused in Hiroshima and Nagasaki may dissuade even the most unstable of states from using a similar weapon.