Today is the 60th anniversary of the bombing of Nagasaki.

The scholars and pundits of today still argue over the necessity of it all, whether or not we could have wrested surrender from the hands of the Japanese without the tragedies of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Having been there, seen the coastlines, met the people - I can't imagine anything other than the costliest of victories. I was but a simple sailor at the time though, certainly no real student of the politics or history of the era. Who will ever know?

The fact that it was a sad day for humanity is not a matter for debate.

Here are some pictures/postcards that I took/bought while I visited ground zero as a sailor in December of 1994, as well as an excerpt from a letter I had written to my girlfriend at the time.

20 DEC '94 - NAGASAKI WAS VERY EMOTIONALLY IMPACTING, FOR ME. I WAS ABLE TO STAND AT GROUND-ZERO RIGHT WHERE THE BOMB WENT OFF. THE A-BOMB MUSEUM HAD MANY GRAPHIC PICTURES, VIDEOS, AND PERSONAL INTERVIEW-ACCOUNTS FROM THE VICTIMS. I THINK I WAS MOST TAKEN WITH A PILE OF CANVAS. IT LOOKED LIKE A PILE OF FOLDED CANVAS ANYWAY, BUY IT WAS REALLY HALF INCH THICK IRON PLATE THAT WAS WITHIN THE HYPO-CENTER OF THE BLAST! IN A HALF SECOND THE BOMB BLAST HAD CRUSHED THE-IRON ROOFING OF THE PRISON AS IF IT WERE SUPPLE CLOTH. MORE SO THAN ALL OF THE PICTURES AND MELTED GLASS THAT I HAD VIEWED, THAT IRON PLATE WILL FOREVER BE IN MY MIND. IT LOOKED LIKE MY BLANKET DOES WHEN I PUSH IT TO THE END OF MY RACK. I KNOW OF NOTHING THAT CAN DO THAT SO CASUALLY AS THAT BLAST DID. 75,000 PEOPLE WERE KILLED INSTANTLY, WITH 75,000 MORE TO FOLLOW IN THE WEEKS AFTER. A TRUE TRAGEDY. BUT... HOW ELSE WERE WE TO END THE WAR? MY SYMPATHIES ARE CERTAINLY WITH THE MEN WHO MADE THAT DECISION, AS WELL AS THE VICTIMS OF HIROSHIMA AND NAGASAKI. NAGASAKI IS DEDICATED TO NUCLEAR DISARMAMENT AND WORLD PEACE. CAN YOU BLAME THEM? PART OF ME WAS SURPRISED TO SEE ALMOST NO PHYSICAL EVIDENCE OF THE BLAST REMAINING TODAY. EVEN AT GROUND ZERO, WHERE A PARK TO WORLD PEACE STANDS TODAY, TREES GROW IN THE GROUND AND FLOWERS LOOK TO THE SUN. I WAS EXPECTING TO SEE A LITTLE MORE BARREN-NESS FOR SOME REASON. IT CONFIRMED THE RESOLUTION OF THE HUMAN SPIRIT, I THINK. I FEEL BETTER FOR HAVING ACTUALLY BEEN THERE, AND THROWN A PENNY IN THE WATERS OF THE PEACE FOUNTAIN IN APOLOGY - I THREW ONE IN THERE FOR YOU, TOO.

Posted by Michael at August 9, 2005 05:37 PM