06 August

Today is the day that saw a catastrophe, encompassing human suffering of an unimaginable magnitude – and the tragedy is that the after effects still persist. 65 years back on this day, the American aircraft christened ‘Enola Gay’ had dropped ‘the little boy’ – the first manmade atomic bomb – into the heart of the then busy city of Hiroshima. The aftermath was terrible, as the huge mushroom shaped cloud grew into the sky, people and livestock just vanished into thin air without a trace thanks to the intense heat and radiation that enveloped the city. Buildings and other infrastructure were reduced to useless rubble and the once noisy city had become an eerie and silent ghost town. Three days later was the dropping of the second bomb on the city of Nagasaki. The proud nation of Japan was brought down to her knees and the emperor was willing to sign the instrument of surrender as dictated by the victors of the II World War, the Allied Forces.
This is a tragedy that must never be repeated, huge stockpiles of nuclear bombs in the arsenals of many countries notwithstanding. May sane thoughts prevail upon governments and their leaders the world over, so that the sufferings of the millions of people that inhabited the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki do not go waste. And may the huge stockpiles of weapons be just deterrents! Let’s say a minute’s prayer for all the people who’d suffered in that horrible incident.

Tailpiece.
While at school, I had read the book ‘The knights of Bushido’ written by a US army Major which is a gripping chronicle of the atrocities committed by the Japanese Armed Forces, while they were victoriously invading country after country, during the course of the II World War. And I remember asking then as to why the Americans had stopped at dropping two atom bombs.

The crew of the aircraft that dropped the bombs had a drastic transformation on sighting and further hearing about the undue hell that they’d raised. One of them committed suicide overcome by guilt, another became deeply religious and consequently, a pastor and the third simply lost his mental equilibrium. Such was the effect!

And it’s against this backdrop that I’d said earlier that we can ill afford to have a repeat of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.