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70 years ago today, the first atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima, Japan. The devastation was immediate. More than 90% of the city was destroyed, and over 100 000 people were killed.
Adam Atkinson was outside Hamilton city hall today, where a group held a memorial for the victims of the bombing.
The bomb was called “little boy”, it was dropped from a boeing B29 bomber named Enola Gay.
It instantly killed over 70,000 people, mostly civilians, tens of thousands more died in the following days, weeks, and months.
Three days later a second atomic bomb named “fat man” was dropped on Nagasaki with the same devastating results.
“Those who were atomic bombed in Hiroshima, those people who died silently. Why couldn’t they say please give me life. Why didn’t they say so.”
Emi Morimoto had a relative killed in Hiroshima. She read a poem for people who attended a memorial ceremony at city hall this afternoon.
Hiroshima has been rebuilt, but there are still reminders of the bombing.
“Some people may think that it hasn’t directly affected me, but it had long lasting effects, and I think that a lot of the things that are happening today are a direct result of those bombs.”
It’s estimated that 9 countries have a combined 16,300 nuclear weapons, all of them more powerful than the atomic bombs that were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
“I went to a museum in Nagasaki that illustrated just how many around the world there are, and it’s hard to fathom just how much destruction all of those together could really cause.”
“A lot of this material could be turned over, the bombs should be dismantled, disabled, should be removed.” said Rein Ende.
The bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki didn’t end the war immediately, on August 15th, Japan’s emperor surrendered unconditionally.
“If people continue to threaten each other with nuclear weapons, they obviously haven’t learned their lesson from 70 years ago.”
Hamilton is a sister city to Fukuyama Japan, which is about an hour from hiroshima. Two days after the first bomb was dropped, Fukuyama was attacked in an air raid as well.
