Little Boy & Fat Man's 63rd anniversary

[Marine]

While checking the news, this morning, - as usual...is it how I begin every post ?!? - below the fuss around the Olympics, I found an article asking if anybody remembered what happened 63 years ago.I have to admit, I didn't notice the date the last few days. Is the fact that there's a birthday in my family between the two dates an excuse ?Is it a coincidence ? I was idling on the web yesterday, planning my trip to Japan (trying to silence the little voice saying "what about carbon emissions for such a loooong flight ?"), checking distances between some of the cities I would like to visit. Especially I wanted to see if going to Gunkanjima was feasible, and, it isn't. If I take care of the law, that is. But I'm not the reckless type (not when I might face prison in a country where I don't speak the language fluently enough to tell the cops to fuck off) so... maybe in a few years I'll think differently -and speak better Japanese. Maybe I have time left and maybe I'll go there. Pfff. I haven't left yet and I'm already thinking about next time (idiot !).Anyway, back to the matter at hand, the date. And the trip.I'm really glad I'll be able to go to Hiroshima. Nagasaki would be a bit too far, so we won't go there, a shame. But still, I've heard and read so many things about Hiroshima that I might be more impatient to go there than to clean out Akihabara.So...google-ing Hiroshima gives no suprise on the first links.It's really... disturbing ... reading those stories of those people - kids, soldiers, nurses, poets - , the majority of whom had absolutely nothing to do with the conflict, transcribing with such accurate details the sick experiment they were part of (especially the way American """"""doctors"""""" treated them). I have had the honor of hearing the story of a Hibakusha, Mrs Hashizume Bun, a Japanese poet, who was 14 and living in Hiroshima in 1945. She told us about what had happened, and trust me, reading about the bombing and side effects and hearing it, hearing this small old woman with her tiny little shaking voice talking about the PikaDon and telling the story of her hair burning because she didn't have the strength to move away from the fire is something I am not sure I want to experience again. Too much for me. Some of the things she told are carved in my mind, and I don't think I will ever forget them.And still... The people from Hiroshima haven't stopped living. They aren't burying themselves in painful memories like so many with tragic history tend to do (who you consider in this category, individuals or people, is up to you. Not gonna start another argument about opportunism and indecency). The other side of it is the ignorance of the survivors' suffering, who are the living evidence of Japan's defeat ; some of them are ashamed of being a Hibakusha. Survivor's guilt ? Strange culture.Happy anniversary being obviously inappropriate, I'll finish with Tamiki Hara's last words.Engraved in stone long ago,Lost in the shifting sand,In the midst of a crumbling world,The vision of one flower.