President Obama lays wreath on Hiroshima Peace Memorial
Credit: CNN
HIRSOSHIMA PEACE MEMORIAL, HIROSHIMA, JAPAN — Seventy-one years ago, on a bright, cloudless morning, death fell from the sky and the world was changed. A flash of light and a wall of fire destroyed a city and demonstrated that mankind possessed the means to destroy itself.
Why do we come to this place, to Hiroshima? We come to ponder a terrible force unleashed in a not so distant past. We come to mourn the dead, including over 100,000 in Japanese men, women and children; thousands of Koreans; a dozen Americans held prisoner. Their souls speak to us. They ask us to look inward, to take stock of who we are and what we might become.
It is not the fact of war that sets Hiroshima apart. Artifacts tell us that violent conflict appeared with the very first man. Our early ancestors, having learned to make blades from flint and spears from wood, used these tools not […]
The US being the victor means not having to say you’re sorry for 150,000 + civilian deaths. The US knew that Japan was nearly on its knees before they dropped those 2 A-bombs. The real reason for dropping them was to warn Stalin and the Soviets with …’just try it lads’!