Remembering Hiroshima and Nagasaki

I was struck by the irony of two events on Sunday. After church on Sunday, I met a member named Nishimoto-san. When I first saw him, I noted that he was elderly, on oxygen, and very short- even for a Japanese man. After the service I sat next to him at what the members call "British tea", where everyone drinks coffee or tea and snacks on various treats. A favorite game that older Japanese people like to play is "guess how old I am". I always do my best to guess low- and I'm usually off by 15 or 20 years- they all look so young here! I found out that Nishimoto-san is 70 years old. He also told me that he was born in Hiroshima. I quickly tried to do the math in my head. He told me that he was 8 years old when the bomb went off, and that he remembers the day well. My heart began to race. I didn't know what to say or to do; other than to listen to him and tell him how sorry I was for his pain. I learned then that although the oxygen was something he'd only been using for the last 5 years, he'd lost his left arm in the explosion and his growth was severely stunted. He hadn't grown since the bomb went off. He told me he'd written an article that had been published in the Lutheran Witness some years ago about his experiences, and so I am trying to track down a copy.

Then later that day, after lunch I wound up in Ueno Park. It is a place where modern meets tradition; boasting various temples, a 5-story pagoda, carnival rides, and even a zoo. But what struck me the most was a monument that was there. It was all in granite. There was a place in the body of the bird that had been hollowed out that held a single flame, concealed in glass. The flame is was captured and saved by a man who traveled in search of his father after the bombs were dropped, finding only the house in ruins and still burning. The flame became for him a sort of symbol of his hatred and anger; but over time it became a symbol of his desire for peace and the eradication of the use, production, and possession of nuclear weapons. The flame was presented at the UN disarmament task force that convened in New York in 1988, and has found it home in Ueno Park ever since.

Prior to coming here, I was very apprehensive about encountering people who harbored negative feelings toward the US for dropping the two atomic bombs at the end of WWII. Some 60 years later, and international relations seem to be much better than before the war. They love American culture here among the younger generation and seek to emulate it in various forms: movies, music, food, etc. But there does exist the convicting and convincing voice of experience among the people here- asking the world to consider the costs that they had to pay and for that the price is enough to stop Nuclear war forever.