I usually read the morning paper on my way to work and get a pick-me-up from Dilbert and other interesting articles. But last Tuesday morning, one particlular article tugged gently at my heartstrings, touched and lola nyo, so to speak.
This was about the survivors of a hydrogen bomb test at Bikini Atoll and that they recently marked the 50th year of that incident. There was this guy, a radio operator of the doomed Japanese trawler whose entire crew were irradiated by the bomb test, who died at age 40 and whose dying wish was...
"Please make sure that I am the last victim of a nuclear bomb."
I guess my visit to Hiroshima and the A-bomb museum 2 summers ago made me more sensitive to this person's dying wish. What happened at Nagasaki and Hiroshima should never be repeated but the threat is just getting more real than ever.
One moment you are enjoying listening to your fave music at iTunes, then time stops at 8:15, your seated body disintegrates into charred dust and leaves a "shadow" on the last remaining piece of concrete that stands among the ruins. Just like the shadow I saw in the museum, of a woman seated on the steps of bank waiting for it to open, at ground zero in Hiroshima.
This was about the survivors of a hydrogen bomb test at Bikini Atoll and that they recently marked the 50th year of that incident. There was this guy, a radio operator of the doomed Japanese trawler whose entire crew were irradiated by the bomb test, who died at age 40 and whose dying wish was...
"Please make sure that I am the last victim of a nuclear bomb."
I guess my visit to Hiroshima and the A-bomb museum 2 summers ago made me more sensitive to this person's dying wish. What happened at Nagasaki and Hiroshima should never be repeated but the threat is just getting more real than ever.
One moment you are enjoying listening to your fave music at iTunes, then time stops at 8:15, your seated body disintegrates into charred dust and leaves a "shadow" on the last remaining piece of concrete that stands among the ruins. Just like the shadow I saw in the museum, of a woman seated on the steps of bank waiting for it to open, at ground zero in Hiroshima.
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