Monday, August 06, 2007

Hiroshima Day

The picture is the peace memorial in Hiroshima, depicting the child victim of cancer who died before she completed folding her 1,000th paper crane....which Japaneese folklore says gives the folder a long life.

It is so hard to hold two contrasting truths at the same time.

The suffering of Hiroshima was horrible, and the Bomb and its possible use has been a scourge on humanity ever since, hovering in the background of nightmares.

But it ended a war; a war which was justly fought against an aggressor. As my father (who, if I remember the story correctly, was boarding a ship for Japan when it happened) reminded me several times in my pacifist youth, if we hadn't dropped the bomb, I might not be here. The projected loss of life in the assault on Japan was very, very high.

It is hard, but it is possible, to mourn the terrible consequences of a thing that was rightly done. Indeed, I believe that if we are not to loose our humanity in the hurly burly of life, it is necessary to mourn the terrible consequences even of things rightly done.

Today is Hiroshima Day. With the now rebuilt city of Hiroshima, we must pray for peace.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I am definitely hoping that human beings can find a way out of war, but I have little faith that will happen so long as mass killing is considered an acceptable or just means of achieving victory.

Kelsey Atherton said...

I've got two posts up that take some of your post as inspiration -

http://kelseydatherton.blogspot.com/2007/08/nagasaki-day.html

and then

http://kelseydatherton.blogspot.com/2007/08/nuke-prevention-corollary.html

Good post - Hiroshima is an odd tragedy to have remembrances for, since the mood is such a mixed one.