John Cory: Shadow On Stone (America To Take Part In Hiroshima Commemoration For First Time GRAPHIC)

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http://www.readersupportednews.org/opinion/33-33/2600-shadow-on-stone

Shadow on Stone

By John Cory, Reader Supported News
05 August 2010

Reader Supported News | Perspective

She went about her morning routine, signed the attendance book, dusted desks and prepared for another day of work at the bank. She was 20 years old.

He was 32, had just finished breakfast, and was on his way to work at the newspaper where he was a cameraman.

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It was morning - August 6, 1945 - in Hiroshima.

Akiko Takakura, 20 - Yoshito Matsushige, 32 - Tomiko Sasaki, 17 - became "hibakusha" which means "those who were bombed."

You can read excerpts of their testimony here, about how the only colors of that day were fire red and black and brown doom, and how the smoke and dust choked people and made them so thirsty they opened their mouths to drink the black rain that fell to quench their thirst and cool their burning bodies.

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Over time, I learned that hibakusha became outcasts in mainstream Japanese society for many years, even decades, after the war. As it turned out, having survived a blast that instantly vaporized an estimated 66,000 people in Hiroshima and some 30,000 human beings in Nagasaki was not such a good thing after all.

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I also learned that there were niju hibakusha, or the "twice-bombed." These people, burned and wounded in Hiroshima, sought escape to family and relatives in Nagasaki only to be caught under Fat Man three days later.

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This year, for the first time in 65 years, America will participate in the Hiroshima commemoration. Already, FOX has made a story on why it's bad and appears to be an "apology" and makes America look weak. The forces of imperial empire are never forgiving and are forever ravenous - or maybe they just fear a world at peace.

At 08:15 Hiroshima will stop - a moment of silence in remembrance. Flowers and water will be offered to the dead and then bells will ring in hope of bringing peace to the souls of the dead and those of the living.

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