Nagasaki and Hiroshima

April 8-Hiroshima and Nagasaki

To while away the 2 1/2 hour drive to Hiroshima we folded origami cranes and learned the story of Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes. She was 2 years old when the bomb was dropped and 12 years old when she died of leukemia. Her mother referred to her illness as an atom bomb disease. She was very brave and optimistic and her story is read by schoolchildren all over Japan and in many countries. She has become the symbol for hope for lasting peace in the world. The Children’s Peace Monument in Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park, has a golden crane chime, and is dedicated to her and the thousands of children who were killed by the bomb. Thousands of paper cranes are offered to it daily by children from all over the world. In Nagasaki these thousand paper crane offerings are fashioned into art works by the children and dedicated to peace. Viewing these is heartbreaking.

As I ponder images of Hiroshima and Nagasaki after the A-bomb, a man-made destruction, I recall the dramatic video images of the tsunami played over and over again in the news . I am disturbed by the similarity of these images. Man has enormous capacity to destroy, but it has will, unlike nature. Nature can be harnessed but it can’t be changed. It is the source of life itself but it can also destroy. We must be willing to accept the risks involved when we alter its natural course. The science applied to produce nuclear energy destroyed Hiroshima and Nagasaki but it also provided the energy source to build a nation into prosperity in times of peace. Despite the devastation of the bombing, Japan embraced nuclear energy to rise from its ruins and to fuel its economic resurgence to become the 2nd economic power in the world until most recently. There is no evil in science, but in how man uses it. The monumental loss of lives and the rubble made of cities in the wake of the earthquake and tsunami of March 11 in Fukushima is a natural disaster. The continuing threat of radiation from the damaged nuclear reactors is the risk we have to take. We forget that we’re dealing with nature, we may harness it for our benefit but we can’t change it. There is such a hysteria in response to this. The misunderstanding of its nature results in illogical behavior. Now there is a call for abandoning nuclear energy source. The US State Department evacuated nationals from all of Japan, it issued travel advisory to Japan. My friend from Munich wrote me that the city parliament is calling for votes to ban nuclear reactors. When it was reported that there is increased radiation levels in the sea around the disaster area there was fear that fish is contaminated and some stopped eating sushi. Some celebrity chefs with great fanfare announced they are screening their fish with a Geiger counter. All the fish farms and distribution centers in the area have been wiped out, and no one is allowed around its waters, there’s no way any fish will be coming to the table from that region.
The issue for me is not nuclear energy and the nuclear reactors that produce them. It is governments ran by men who misuse the science and use nuclear threat to dominate others. These men should all visit the monuments in Hiroshima and Nagasaki and learn the story of Sadako and fold 1000 paper cranes for peace.

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