your village voice

Hiroshima 60th Anniversary

Today is the 60th Anniversary of the Allied dropping of the atomic bomb on the bustling metropolis of Hiroshima during World War II. August 9th will mark the 60th of Nagasaki.


The AP reports the details of this event in Japan:

For a brief moment, the trolleys will stop and the city will fall silent. Then, with water and flowers for the dead, Hiroshima will remember how a flash in the early morning sky 60 years ago turned life to death for more than 140,000 people and forever changed the face of war.

To mark the 60th anniversary of the world's first atomic bomb attack, more than 50,000 people were expected to gather Saturday in Peace Memorial Park, a sprawling, tree-covered expanse that for one day each year becomes the spiritual epicenter of the global anti-nuclear movement.

Let us all pause in our daily lives and offer our own moment of silence. Perhaps in this reflection, humanity might find a way to redirect its wartime hatred and energies by scrapping these weapons and taking up the more difficult path to peace. The death of so many innocents surely proves the end that beckons us all if we continue developing nuclear weapons and following aggressive leaders that fill our brains with fear and hatred.

Fear and hatred will only lead to oblivion; the only viable path is hope and peace.

For more debate on the fateful US decision to drop the bomb, check out the LA Times article today - The Myths of Hiroshima.

posted by the prisoner @ 8:05:00 AM