A Hope for a Nuclear Weapons Free World

We were in Nagasaki last month. A noisy city, with narrow streets full of activity, and trams to add to the commotion. It is located in a narrow valley, with mountains on three sides. We reached there late in the night. The night view was amazing - lights in the valley and high up in the mountains. Reminded me of the lights of Shimla as seen from Chail. We decided to do a walking tour of the city the next day(most places of interest were walking distance of each other), but by the time we reached the first place, it started raining. Bad news, if you had planned a walking tour! Anyway. We purchased two cheap umbrella's from a convenience store and crossed a busy street.
"So where is the A-bomb museum?", I asked Preetam.
"We are going to the Hypocentre first."
"Hypocentre?"
"Place where the bomb was dropped. It's right here", he pointed to the left.
"What??"
I almost stopped. The bomb was dropped HERE...It was unbelievable. The bomb that killed 150,000 people, in an instant flash of heat and radiation(and an equal number later...slowly, painfully, over the years)...was dropped H-E-R-E!! As I walked slowly towards the Hypocentre - the exact point over which the bomb exploded - April 09, 1945, 11:02 AM - there was an overwhelming feeling of sadness. I had tears in my eyes. I tried to hold them back, but like the falling rain, they came down anyway. It was a somber scene. The only thing I wanted to say was...I am sorry. I am sorry this happened.

There were not many tourists there at that hour. I saw an old man praying in front of the stone memorial. He was there for a long time, in the rain. After a while, he wiped his eyes and walked away graciously. It was a very touching sight. I don't know who he was, where he came from or whether he or his family suffered directly from the bomb...but to me, he was a symbol of that generation of Japan, which had accepted the price they had to pay for their country's war-time aggression(whether the price was justified, I don't know...), started from scratch and worked hard to build the nation that we see today. A prosperous and a peaceful Japan.


Hypocentre - as seen today. The bomb exploded 500 meters above this point. The fierce blast wind, heat rays reaching several thousand degrees and deadly radiation generated by the explosion, instantly reduced a once thriving city to ruins.

We spent a long time just sitting there. It was very peaceful in that little park. It's been designated as a prayer zone. From there we went to the Atomic-Bomb Museum. It is an excellent museum and a must-go for all who want to know all about the chilling horror of the Atomic Bomb and the nuclear arms race that followed. We planned to be there for a couple of hours only but ended up spending the whole day. And there were still many sections we hadn't seen.

It was said, at the time of the explosion, that there would be no vegetation or sign of life in that area for the next 75 years. So completely the earth and everything on it was charred, distorted, annihilated.

As we sat in the little green park near the Hypocentre, I could hear birds chirping. I could see trees and the green grass, fresh and bright in the rain. I saw two little girls come in and walk away together. I was filled with hope as I left that place. Hope for a peaceful world. A Nuclear Weapons free world.