To most, Hiroshima is a paragraph in a chapter on World War 2 in a Ninth-Grade history lesson. To the slightly more interested, it brought the Second World War to an end. The date is 6 August 1945.
To those who follow Hollywood (Oppenheimer is the latest example), the free world led by America had an obligation to test a nuclear weapon lest Germany tested one earlier. It was also to put an end to Japan’s military campaign.
The truth is different.
Hitler had died on 30 April 1945 and Germany was under Allies control by 7th May. Mussolini was earlier executed on 28 April 1945. With two of the three Axis powers having surrendered and Japan on its knees, the world war had effectively ended on the day of destruction.
The US had other plans though. They needed to check out the new toy that their scientists created. They scanned for a well-populated town of about a 3 KM radius, relatively flat to assess the destruction. To gauge impact, Hiroshima was also not subjected to the aerial bombing the whole of Japan had to endure.
At 8.15 AM, the devastation was unleashed. The hypocenter was 600 M above the ground and the fury it triggered was beyond anyone’s comprehension. With temperatures touching 3000-4000 degrees, everything burned. The skin peeled off everyone’s body. The curse did not discriminate– young, old, firm, infirm, men, women- no one survived. The city saw black rain for hours together. Those who were exposed to the radiation – they suffered for decades.
Nothing survived the destruction of government offices, museums, schools, farms, and hospitals.
As we moved from one poignant story to another in the peace museum, we could not take it anymore. When I was boarding a bullet train to Hiroshima, I felt very excited. After the visit to the museum and the hypocenter – I felt guilty about my excitement.
Today, Hiroshima is a bustling city of 1 million. Except for the hypocenter and the museum, there are no visible scars – though they remain in the memories.
We don’t know whether it is atonement or smart business strategy, but the US led by General MacArthur played a key role in Japan’s reconstruction.
