Hiroshima
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- Category: History: American
- Date Submitted: 06/07/2011 03:44 PM
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Hiroshima: 'There was a flash. Then everything turned black'
It was a day for remembering the victims of one of history's greatest mass killings, but most of the attention was on a middle-aged man sitting among the 55,000 people watching yesterday's memorial ceremony in Hiroshima.
John Roos, the US ambassador to Japan, was one of 74 foreign envoys who fell silent at 8.15am – the time "Little Boy" detonated over the city on 6 August 1945. But for survivors of the blast that reduced Hiroshima to ashes and took 140,000 lives, his presence loomed by far the largest.
"It's very important to us that he came," said Hiroshi Takayama, 80, who was working in a factory with his schoolmates when he felt the searing blast from the bomb. "We've been telling people for 65 years not to use these weapons, but these people have never showed up until now. If they cared, they would have come to see the facts for themselves."
The ceremony was Hiroshima's largest ever, with choirs of children joining the elderly survivors, descendants and dignitaries. It began with the symbolic offering of water: many who died after the blast complained of an excruciating thirst in their final moments. Yesterday, under a burning sun, prayers were offered to the dead and bells rang out.
Known in Japan as hibakusha, the survivors believe that the decision by the US, Britain and France to send official delegates to the city for the first time is a sign that the global momentum for disarmament is building. But Japan's Prime Minister, Naoto Kan, appeared to dash their hopes when he defended the US nuclear deterrent, saying it was "necessary for our nation".
"Of course that's what we want," said Yoshimichi Ishimaru, who is the son of a Hiroshima hibakusha. "We know that if we scrap the nuclear deterrent, we have to begin to question the whole defence treaty with America, and that's very difficult. But Hiroshima can't just think about the national interest – it must consider the whole of humanity."...
It was a day for remembering the victims of one of history's greatest mass killings, but most of the attention was on a middle-aged man sitting among the 55,000 people watching yesterday's memorial ceremony in Hiroshima.
John Roos, the US ambassador to Japan, was one of 74 foreign envoys who fell silent at 8.15am – the time "Little Boy" detonated over the city on 6 August 1945. But for survivors of the blast that reduced Hiroshima to ashes and took 140,000 lives, his presence loomed by far the largest.
"It's very important to us that he came," said Hiroshi Takayama, 80, who was working in a factory with his schoolmates when he felt the searing blast from the bomb. "We've been telling people for 65 years not to use these weapons, but these people have never showed up until now. If they cared, they would have come to see the facts for themselves."
The ceremony was Hiroshima's largest ever, with choirs of children joining the elderly survivors, descendants and dignitaries. It began with the symbolic offering of water: many who died after the blast complained of an excruciating thirst in their final moments. Yesterday, under a burning sun, prayers were offered to the dead and bells rang out.
Known in Japan as hibakusha, the survivors believe that the decision by the US, Britain and France to send official delegates to the city for the first time is a sign that the global momentum for disarmament is building. But Japan's Prime Minister, Naoto Kan, appeared to dash their hopes when he defended the US nuclear deterrent, saying it was "necessary for our nation".
"Of course that's what we want," said Yoshimichi Ishimaru, who is the son of a Hiroshima hibakusha. "We know that if we scrap the nuclear deterrent, we have to begin to question the whole defence treaty with America, and that's very difficult. But Hiroshima can't just think about the national interest – it must consider the whole of humanity."...