THROBBING HIROSHIMA Dr C.V ANANDA BOSE

 

13. THROBBING HIROSHIMA

When the slayer of the evil Kamsa was born to Devaki, a heavenly voice made a proclamation of it. There was no such proclamation when the destroyer of Japan was born in Alamogordo in New Mexico. But American President Truman got a slip of paper announcing its birth. “It is a boy. ’ Its date of birth was the 16th of July, 1945.

The pet name given by Americans for the uranium bomb that annihilated Hiroshima was ‘Little Boy. ’ And its twin that destroyed Nagasaki was named ‘Fat Boy. ’ When these two naughty boys came together, the number of those killed in these two cities exceeded 250,000. And no one was able to estimate the number of the living dead who suffered grievously from radiation.

August 6,1945. It was 8. 16 in the morning when America’s atomic bomb fell on Hiroshima. Tens of thousands of people at the core of the blast site instantly evaporated into nothing. And those outside this area were partially liquefied in the intense heat. Thousands more with melted and congealed bodies ran helter skelter. Their bodies were so horrifyingly misshapen that it was impossible to make out whether they were men or women. Timber houses were all burnt up and concrete buildings all became rubble heaps, trapping thousands underneath.

It was Technical Sergeant George Caron, the tail gunner of the, B-29 Bomber aircraft, named Enola Gay, who was the first to give an eye witness account of the momentous event of the dropping of the first atomic bomb in world history. "The mushroom cloud itself was a spectacular sight, a bubbling mass of purple-gray smoke and you could see it had a red core in it and everything was burning inside. . . . It looked like lava or molasses covering a whole city. . . . " 

While those up above were finding the sight spectacular, those down below were subjected to fire and brimstone of hell. About 80 per cent of the buildings in Hiroshima collapsed into rubble heaps. Later estimates put the loss at 68,000 houses. Only some quake resistant buildings survived. But the fate of the survivors in them was pitiable. No one had any idea what was happening. Even as they were looking out of the window they saw men and women falling down dead. And as huge flames engulfed them, the human shapes appeared like silhoutes or as the images on film negatives, then vanished into nothingness. At times some nude figures were seen, burning flesh oozing from their bodies.  They were melting down like wax.

The dead were lucky. It was the fate of the survivors that was lamentable. They lost appetite, lost control over bowel movements, and bled from ears,nose and mouth. A staggering 140,000 people died in Hiroshima. Another 60,000 died in the next five years. Even today the real impact of radiation could not be assessed. Studies were continuing. But it was amply clear that the radiation led to such illnesses as blood cancer. A study conducted after the blast by the Yumaguchi University revealed a very sad finding. One fourth of the children born in Hiroagony had one congenital defect or the other.

Those at the helm of the diabolical act in Hiroshima were not willing for a change of heart even after witnessing death and the devastation caused by the bombing and pain and suffering of the helpless survivors. Three days later they dropped another bomb, nick-named Fat Boy, in Nagasaki. In fact Nagasaki was not the intended target. They had planned to devastate Kokura but at the appointed time the sky was overcast and visibility of the bomber pilot low. And Lucifer in the armed forces headquarters in America decided that if the target could not be bombed, any other place was as good. That was how under the stewardship of President Truman an atom bomb fell in Nagasaki. Twenty-four thousand people died. And generations were subjected to the hazards of radiation.

What was it that prompted America to such fiendishness? That too when Germany and other allies of Japan were surrendering one after the other. There was a reason. The dare-devil heroism of the Japanese. Japan had always betrayed a preparedness to embrace death, the mentality of a suicide trooper. America was well aware of this. In its bid to capture the small strategic island of Evojima America had lost 25,000 men. Another 8,000 had to be sacrificed during the three month campaign to seize Okinawa. America was certain that it would have to face great loss of men if the war with Japan were to continue. Wasn’t it better to annihilate the enemy? That was the standpoint of America.

Even though its war machine was in disarray, Japan still had clear supremacy in Manchuria, Korea, China and Indonesia in July 1945. America’s incessant bombing had destroyed many a Japanese city. Further, America was able to break the backbone of Japanese navy. But still it could not demoralise the Japanese soldiers or rein the hegemonic ambitions of Japanese leadership. Convinced that the ultimate victory was theirs, the Japanese people were preparing for a do-or-die encounter. Their design was to go in for peace talks when they were on the threshold of victory. Concede some areas while retaining a major portion for itself. This was the attitude of the Japanese people who believed in the invincibility of the Emperor.

It was to face such a situation that America decided to field the inventions of the Manhattan Project, the Little Boy and the Fat Boy. Though America was well aware of the horror of such an all pervasive destructive mission, why was it that it did not give out a warning before hand. The reason perhaps was the diabolical attitude that controlled that country’s war efforts. If a warning was given wouldn’t its bomber plane be shot down? If by any chance the bomb did not explode, wouldn’t it have given a propaganda gain for Japan? Anyway, evil thoughts prevailed.

The Potsdam Declaration made it abundantly clear to Japan. Surrender or face annihilation. As expected Japan dismissed the ultimatum with contempt. With that, the fate of Hiroshima was sealed.

The other side also had to be made clear. Even after all this, the Japanese army leadership refused to surrender. The Japanese army top brass was jeering at the impending annihilation in the same way as Duryodhana did in the battlefield of Kurukshethra when, drunk with the arrogance of power, he stood mocking at the face of his own abject defeat. In the end Emperor Hirohito called a conference of political party leaders and advised them to surrender. And Japan surrendered on August 14, 1945.

Let the accountants of history try to find out profit and loss in the balance sheet of the massacre. And let the big boys of world politics play with their toys of uranium and plutonium.

 

Vedas say

Yathebhume vikhanami

Kshipram thadapi rohathu

Mathe marma vimraguari

Mathe hridaya marpitham.

(Hey, earth, whatever I take from you, let it sprout,

Oh, holy land, let me never split your vital spots, your heart.

These all are old fashioned sentiments. The new law is there is nothing wrong in targeting , without fail, the very vital spots of the earth. After all, the earth is nothing but a globe. What if it strays from its axis? The outer space is there as a playground for Little Boy and the Fat Boy. Let star wars begin.