BY Hiroaki KONNO

I went to Hiroshima to learn about the horrors of the Atomic bomb and the cruelty of war late August this year. One half century has passed since the end of the Pacific War, and we are now living in what is called ﾔﾕPeaceful life.ﾕﾕ However, at present, countless ethnic conflicts or religious wars are going on around the world. Whenever I watch these reports on TV or read them in the newspapers I canﾕt help but think that the time will come when Japan goes to war again. The city of Hiroshima lost 140 thousand civilians to the A-bomb ﾔﾕﾕLittle boy.ﾕﾕ I want to realize the importance of peace by facing the scars of the past.

The Pacific War continued longer than the U.S. had expected. Therefore, she dropped the Atomic bomb on Japan as a means to prompt Japan to submit to anunconditional surrender. When the A-bomb exploded, it burned people with the heat rays which amounted to about 3000~4000 ℃, and the strong blast blew away many houses. After this, fire destroyed buildings, which led to the ruin of Hiroshima, and later many people suffered from radiation. Mr. Okuda, who experience first hand the A-bomb at age 8, and presently is a member of a ﾔﾕPeace Volunteerﾕﾕ group. He says, ﾒBefore the instant of the explosion came I had been in the entrance of my home. Suddenly, the sky flashed and I had no idea what happened to me at that time. When I got my sight back my elder brother, who must have been in the back room, was crushed to death under a chest in front of my eyes.ﾕﾕ He said that the blast had blown his brother and the chest there. He also said, ﾒOn the outside, I couldnﾕt tell the difference between males or females because they were so badly burn by the heat rays. The skin on their arms was melted and they were wandering like ghosts holding their arms up in

front to avoid touching them with their bodies, which caused great pain.ﾕﾕ

Mr. Okuda, who faced such a tragic sight and the death of his family through an 8 year-oldﾕs eyes, must have been more shocked than we can imagine. There were charred people, people looking for water, and numerous corpses. There were many people who had never expected that this would happen to them in Hiroshima.

Finally, Mr. Okuda said an unbelievable thing. He said, ﾒIt was not the U.S.,

but Japanﾕs militarism that was responsible for the Atomic bombing. I donﾕt hate the U.S. If I hate anything it must be Japanﾕs militarism.ﾕﾕ He may be right, but how can someone who lost his family by the A-bomb say such a thing Yet, I want to believe what he said is his true feelings.

The Peace Memorial Museum displayed a watch that stopped at 8:15 a.m.

and a ragged uniform of a student, and so on. There were numerous belongings in this museum. In another room, many boards and pictures which explained the damage the A-bomb caused struck my eyes without ceasing. All those displays seemed to embody the grief and pain of people. The A-bomb dome, which is near this museum, has been preserved from fifty-six years ago. It doesnﾕt blend in with the arranged streets and buildings of today. I felt as if only this place stillhas been unchanged since then. Therefore, that painful building became an unforgettable sight for me. When the restoration of Hiroshima began, some people were planning to tear down the A-bomb dome in order to forget the tragedy of the past. But the A-bomb dome is a part of the past that tells the grief and pain of the A-bomb and of the war.

At present, everyone knows the history of the Atomic bombing. However,

when I came face to face with the A-bomb dome, I could imagine the war, though it might be a small realization. It wasnﾕt the pictures or explanations of textbooks, but the real scars ・・・that is, facing the war is facing the past, which changed my consciousness from ﾒThere was a war in Japan,ﾕﾕ to ﾒA war did exist in Japan.ﾕﾕ

Though there hasnﾕt been an Atomic bombing since the end of the Pacific War, the number of nuclear weapons at present is more than twenty thousand because of successive nuclear tests and the development of new weapons. We even know that if the nuclear powers ever use these destructive modern bombs the world will be ruined. It may be difficult for our generation to appeal for peace because we havenﾕt experienced war to appeal for peace. But now, The best thing we can do is to learn about the war. Though our consciousness about it is fading away, we must act right now in order that the tragedy of the past doesnﾕt to become meaningless and contributes to a new international society.