(TAN): When I saw a video of the terrible explosion in Beirut that took place earlier this week, I was, like many others, instantly reminded of the pictures and videos I had seen of the world’s first atomic bombing, that took place in Hiroshima on August 6, 1945.
I am not a museum person, but during my visit to Hiroshima some years ago, I made it a point to visit the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum. The museum has documents and artifacts connected to the bomb, nicknamed Little Boy, and what happened when it exploded.
What I saw at the museum moved me, changed me, made me rethink life.
Japan intends to never make nuclear weapons because of what it has experienced.
Here are a some pictures from Hiroshima, because we should never forget what we are capable of doing to ourselves and only by remembering what happened can we make sure it doesn’t happen again.
The world’s first atomic bombing took place at 08:15 in the morning on August 6, 1945. It was a Monday.
One of the very buildings, the structure of which somewhat survived, was the city hall. It’s the building with the dome by the river. The bomb — named Little Boy — exploded almost directly above the building. No one in the building survived.
The former city hall is now called the Atomic Bomb Dome. The city administration maintains this structure so that it looks just the way it appeared after the explosion.
First-year student Shigeru Orimen’s mother found his body on August 9, 1945 with this lunch box clutched under the stomach. Her son hadn’t been able to eat the lunch she had packed for him. You can still see the food that has been charred black.
The woman in the picture above wasn’t too close and didn’t die as a result of the explosion. But the black portions on her clothes absorbed so much heat the patterns were imprinted on her skin.
