representing the dead were floated on a Hiroshima river Saturday, August 6, near ground zero of the world’s first atomic bomb attack 60 years ago. Officials estimate that about 140,000 people were killed instantly or died within a few months after the American air force dropped its deadly payload over the city, which then had a population of about 350,000.
Three days later, another US bomber dropped a plutonium bomb on the city of Nagasaki, killing about 80,000 people, according to estimates. Japan surrendered Aug. 15, 1945, bringing World War II to a close.
While some historians argue the dropping of these bombs may have saved more lives than they destroyed, British Catholic bishops, the general secretary of the Methodist church, Quakers, a Mennonite and top biblical scholars were among some 20 Christian individuals and three church organizations to sign a statement appearing in Saturday’s Guardian newspaper.
POLITICIANS JOIN APPEAL
Members of the British parliament and London Mayor Ken Livingstone also joined the appeal. Ekklesia, a Christian oriented think tank and syndicated news service, said the campaign was sponsored by the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament.
"The 60th anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima falls on the day when many Christians celebrate the Feast of the Transfiguration, a manifestation of God’s glory based on the story in St Matthew chapter 17, where Jesus is revealed alongside Peter, James, John, Moses and Elijah," Ekklesia noted.
"The contrast between the light of life in the Transfiguration story and Hiroshima’s blinding light of death could not be greater,” added Simon Barrow, Co-Director of the UK Christian think tank. "The deployment of nuclear weapons adds to global insecurity, and Britain should now play a significant role in ending their proliferation," he said.
Also in London, over 200 anti-nuclear activists and others reportedly gathered at Tavistock Square, where a cherry tree was planted in 1967 in memory of the victims of the Hiroshima bombing.
PRIME MINISTER REMEMBERS
In Hiroshima, over 50,000 people, including Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, observed a moment of silence at Peace Memorial Park that was broken only by the ringing of a bronze bell.
Each year, the number of dead from the Hiroshima bomb increases because city officials add those who have died afterward of a loosely defined set of bomb-related ailments, including cancers, the Associated Press (AP) news agency reported. Officials now put the total number of the dead in this city alone at 242,437. This year, 5,373 more names were added to the list, AP reported.
Reporters in the area described how a flock of doves was released into the sky and wreaths and ladles of water – symbolizing the suffering of those who died in the atomic inferno – were offered at a simple, arch-shaped stone monument at the center of the park.
"I offer deep prayers from my heart to those who were killed," Koizumi reportedly said, vowing that Japan would be a leader in the international movement against nuclear proliferation.
SURVIVOR SPEAKS OUT
Fumie Yoshida, who survived the blast but lost her father, brother and sister, said she chose not to attend the formal memorial, instead joining a small group of friends to pay her respects privately in the park. Yoshida was 16 when Hiroshima was bombed. She hid under a desk at her school, which was about 2 miles from the epicenter.
"My father’s remains have never been found," AP quoted her as saying. "Those of us who went through this all know that we must never repeat this tragedy. But I think many Japanese today are forgetting."
Ekklesia, which has sometimes raised controversy with what it calls "radical theological ideas in public life" recalled how a Christian chaplain read prayers as the Enola Gay plane took off to carry out the attack.
"NO ETHICAL JUSTIFICATION"
“There is no ethical justification for weapons of mass destruction – Christian, Muslim, Jewish or humanist – no more than for the suicide bomber,” it quoted commentator Paul Oestreicher as saying.
While the United States says it took the action, with Allied agreement, to end Japanese resistance, critics argue launched the beginning of the cold war and the nuclear arms race.
"Britain today has just under 200 nuclear warheads, each eight times more powerful than the Hiroshima bomb. The UK has begun developments at the Atomic Weapons Research Establishment in Aldermaston which could produce a new generation of nuclear weapons," Ekklesia said. (With BosNewsLife Research, Stefan J. Bos and reports from Hiroshima and Japan and London).
