Remebering Hiroshima

Presented at World Peace Day 2006, Long Island, New York

Remembering Hiroshima

Camillo C. Bica

While other cities in Germany, Japan, and elsewhere, were bombed extensively during World War Two, the nuclear bombing of Hiroshima, and later of Nagasaki, crossed a threshold which, unless reversed, places the future survival of our species and all of life at risk. While WWII is traditionally viewed as the good war, the bombing of Hiroshima was an act of massive destruction of an entire city and its civilian population with a single bomb. While there was a rather insignificant army base located in Hiroshima, it was not the base that was targeted, but the center of the city. The vast majority of the victims were civilians, a clear violation of the moral and legal statutes of war. By the end of 1945, some 145,000 people had died in Hiroshima, and some 75,000 in Nagasaki. Now while these heinous acts of genocide cannot be undone, we gather here today not only to remember the past but to anticipate the future. By looking back we can also look forward

Weapons of mass destruction have dominated White House rhetoric for the past few years. The main justification for the war in Iraq, for example, was its alleged pursuit of nuclear weapons. The U.S. strongly criticizes Iran and North Korea for moving to obtain equipment to produce weapons-grade materials. And we are scared into compliance and acquiescence over the possibility that nuclear materials could fall into the hands of terrorists groups such as al Qaeda. But at the same time that the Administration is criticizing, threatening, and waging war against others for having or seeking such weapons, it is upgrading its own nuclear stockpile complex developing what they term mininukes and nuclear bunker busting bombs for planned preemptive nuclear first strike against non nuclear nations and subnational groups. This “do what I say, not what I do” policy is evident to all. If nuclear weapons are unacceptable for Iraq, Iran, and North Korea, they are unacceptable as well for the U.S., and for Israel, and Pakistan. The message that is being sent to the rest of the world, then, is not that nuclear weapons are evil, but that it is evil for nations that see through our hypocrisy, or nations that don’t serve our national interest, to have them. The fact that the U.S., an unrivaled conventional military power, continues to see nuclear weapons as central to its security, and looks the other way when nations that serve our national purpose acquire them, reinforces the idea that these weapons can bring power and security. Consequently, for emerging and threatened nations, the lessons to be learned from this is that, although a nuclear capacity draws strong and potent disapproval from the United States, it becomes a means of their national security, a means to ward off the kind of invasion that Iraq experienced. So while the Bush Administration’s rhetoric over the past few years has focused upon addressing the threat of weapons of mass destruction, by its actions and its examples, it is recklessly increasing the very threat it wishes to advert.

We come together today to ensure that we not be mislead by the warist mythology, that would have us embrace the human tragedies of Hiroshima and Nagasaki as heroic and noble, as necessary to save millions of american lives and as a technological advancement which enabled us to end a brutal war. We must see through the myth that nuclear weapons keep us safe. We must have the moral fortitude and strength of character to acknowledge, that despite our self righteous rhetoric, and our accusations of evil empires and rogue demonic leaders, there is only one nation ever to unleash such devastation, and destruction against humankind. We gather here today to remember, to acknowledge our culpability, and to accept national responsibility for the murder of so many of god’s children.

Nuclear weapons are instruments of genocide and omnicide , the destruction of all. By possessing them, by anticipating and preparing for their future use, and by demonstrating no moral hesitancy to do so, our national leaders hold the whole world hostage. We have become the ultimate terrorists, a rogue nation led by lunatics and psychopaths who see the path to peace through a mushroom cloud and devastated cities and incinerated children. Bush’s world is Bin Laden’s world in some strangely distorted mirror. So we wage war and they jihad. In the process, thousands of innocents are murdered, and both sides rationalize the slaughter by appeals to god and to country, masking their maliciousness beneath the flag of a nation or the tenets of a creed.

We come together today because it is clear that we must remember and learn from the tragedy of 61 years ago if we are going to be able to unite to end the nuclear weapons threat that portends the end of all life. Our task is to reclaim our humanity and assure our common future by ridding the world of these inhumane instruments of indescriminate death and destruction. Eliminate nuclear weapons or run the risk of their eliminating us.

So I ask you today to join me in acknowledging the wisdom of a child and in fulfilling her selfless dream. While, perhaps, we are few in number, there is strength in the righteousness of our cause. Let our voices be heard and together our cries to end this nuclear madness and all wars will be like Sadakos cranes. So if we yell loud enough and if we cry hard enough, with peace on their wings our words will fly all over the world.