Hiroshima Then and Now

It wasn't all that long ago that the unhinged president of the United States was tweeting insults at the tyrannical, unhinged leader of North Korea. Kim was firing rockets here and there resulting in Trump called him "Little Rocket Man" and threatening total annihilation. This cavalier brinkmanship involving nuclear weapons was bizarre and dangerous and we all held our collective breath. Then the two were pals, much to the dismay of Americans whose loved ones were tortured and murdered by the Kim regime. The image of two irresponsible children playing in a garage with matches and a can of gasoline came to mind.

Today marks the 74th anniversary of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, the first of two weapons of mass destruction the US used to hasten the end of WW2. The attack on Hiroshima on killed 140,000 people, mostly civilians. The bomb dropped three days later on Nagasaki killed another 70,000 before Japan's surrender ended the war. There are historians who argue that Japan was on the brink of capitulation and the use of these weapons was not necessary. The outcome was horrific and the only time nuclear bombs have been used in war.  



Since WW2 at least eight more nations have developed nuclear weapons and scientists who had helped develop the first atomic weapons in the Manhattan Project, created what is called  the Doomsday Clock using the imagery of  nuclear countdown and apocalypse (midnight) to convey threats to humanity and the planet. The decision to move (or to leave in place) the minute hand of the Doomsday Clock is made every year.

Many years during my ministry we acknowledged the Hiroshima anniversary during worship and Ruth, my wife, would make paper cranes for children, a symbol of hope and peace. 



The Children's Peace Monument, Hiroshima, 
with a figure of Sadako Sasaki and a crane at the top of the statue

The memory of the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki may be fading from memory but there is still an urgency about the insane stockpile of nuclear weapons around the planet. Trump has huffed about creating more rather than reducing the number of weapons and the US has withdrawn from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty with Russia. 

We humans are a sinful lot and we must repent of this tremendous threat of the peace which God desires for the Earth. It's worth praying for all through the year. 



Hiroshima today