Hear Their Heartbeat

On August 6, 1945, 64 years ago today, the United States dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan. With heat up to 7,000 degrees and blast winds over 600 mph, the bomb obliterated a square mile of the city, killing between 100,000 and 140,000 people. Most of those killed were civilians as Hiroshima had a civilian population of 300,000 and an army base containing about 43,000 soldiers.

Three days later, on August 9, 1945, the United States dropped another atomic bomb on Nagasaki, Japan, a city of about 200,000 people. The blast that day killed between 40,000 and 70,000 people.

Thousands and thousands of women, children and other innocent people were incinerated, deformed or given slow painful deaths. This is a tragically sad day in history.

I take time today to reflect with humility and horror at the unimaginable pain and destruction. I reflect on the horror without judgment of the men who rained it down, themselves trapped in the human pattern of violence and of valuing our own life greater than someone else. The bombs' effect on the end of the war is debated, but that seems to me a distraction from the reality of charred and mutilated women, boys, girls and men. Maybe it ended the war more quickly, maybe it didn't. But it's hard to see any justification for annihilating a city's civilian population, people no different than those in Kansas in 1945, just trying to get through the war and praying their family did too.

Though saddened by America's choices, I am also encouraged by America's renewed interest in eliminating nuclear weapons. We can, and should, lead the way. By remembering the horror and anguish, maybe we can find the courage to take bold steps toward eliminating weapons designed to kill innocent people.