Today marks the 70th anniversary of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, the first use of a nuclear weapon in wartime and the beginning of the nuclear age. Tens of thousands of Japanese died in the terrible blast, and in the weeks and years to follow from radiation exposure. Three days later, another atomic bomb was dropped on Nagasaki, forcing the Japanese government to sue for peace.
A New York Times story tells about a poignant effort to preserve the recollections of Hiroshima's survivors through denshosha, living transmitters of their stories who absorb the details of the survivors' stories so that they can be accurately and vividly passed on. Inscribed on a monument that stands at the Hiroshima Peace Memorial is a poem by a survivor who was 3 kilometers from the blast's center, but who died a few years later from the side effects of radiation:
"No More Hiroshima"
Give Back the Human
Give back my father, give back my mother;
Give grandpa back, grandma back;
Give me my sons and daughters back.
Give me back myself.
Give back the human race.
As long as this life lasts, this life,
Give back peace
That will never end.
-- Sankichi Toge
