The building that remained standing
As President Biden visits Hiroshima, I share my travelogue penned in August 2004.
What have we done!
city annihilated
leveled in minutes
children vaporized
women blinded
people burnt, skins melted
140,000 dead
handful buildings remained
starkly visible on landscape of rubble
survivors succumbing to leukemia
children born to pregnant women
mental and physical deformities.
What have we done!
Why?
Why did we do this to them?
Why did we burn hundreds of thousands
civilians, women, & children?
Did we have to?
Walk in Hiroshima Peace Museum
walk out with your legs trembling
choke on your tears
suck in your breath
stop breathing
Why was this done?
Have we grappled with what we did?
human suffering inflicted in one blow
devastation inflicted in minutes
by us.
What have we done!
Film footage on round screen overhead
dropping of the bomb
surrounding me at point zero
conversation of pilot and command center
flashing across screen
pilot radios back.
“Objective Attained”
Objective of what?
Tremble when you watch
plane drop bomb
circle away
from rising mushroom cloud
I shake to my core
numb
knowing what happened
in those minutes
in those days
months and years.
Why did we do this!
Read Part 2: The Museum Speaks
Part 3: What I Believed Then; What I Know Now
Part 4: Objective Attained
Part 5: The Healing Begins
Seen from my camera in 2004
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