60 years on

Most of the ruins have now burned down.
The darkness kindly hides the many forms that lie on the ground.
Only occasionally in our quick progress do we hear calls for help.
One of us remarks that the remarkable burned smell
reminds him of incinerated corpses.

The atomic bomb was used against Hiroshima at 0815 local time, 6 August 1945.

Three days later, Nagasaki was destroyed the same way.

We have discussed among ourselves
the ethics of the use of the bomb.
Some consider it in the same category as poison gas
and were against its use on a civil population.
Others were of the view that
in total war, as carried on in Japan,
there was no difference between civilians and soldiers,
and that the bomb itself was an effective force
tending to end the bloodshed, warning Japan
to surrender and thus to avoid total destruction.
It seems logical to me
that he who supports total war in principle
cannot complain of war against civilians.

Father John A. Siemes, eyewitness at Hiroshima

| Posted by Wilson at 0:00 Central | TrackBack
| Report submitted to the Power Desk