The Bomb
Saturday, August 6th, 2005A year ago today, Jess and I were in Nagasaki visiting Five. Shortly after 8am, we were woken up by air raid sirens. After regaining our orientation, we realized what was going on.
This was very disrupting to these two American tourists.
To many Americans, the bomb is, quite sadly, simply a matter of historical record, but in Japan, people are quite aware. As awareness spreads, people outside Japan will better understand the horror of these weapons. Nuclear weapons are evil, horrific things. But unfortunately, people are beginning to forget.
The bomb dropped in Hiroshima was as devistating in the number of lives taken as the Asian Tsunami. This is over 75 times the loss had on 9/11. Looking at the pictures, the destruction is incredible. The land is completely flattened. Literally, the bomb takes what is there, and just erases it.
In 1961, the Soviet Union tested a 58 megaton bomb. This is nearly 4000 (!) times more powerful than the bomb dropped on Hiroshima. There is not a major population center on Earth that this could not destroy. The United States has over 10,000 nuclear weapons, about 35 times that of the average nuclear state, with 36,000 world-wide (current explosive power of 500,000 Hiroshima bombs). And we have those in leadership who would make the same mistakes. And these are not the most disturbing facts.
Things are improving. The Russian arsenal is a quarter of what it was at the Soviet Union height. By 2012, the U.S. is expecting to half it’s arsenal.
In the Hiroshima Peace Park, there is the Flame of Peace, whose fires will burn until all of the world’s nuclear weapons are eliminated. I hope we will all witness that day.
Updated Oct 25: A step in the right direction.
