(Marking the day the sun rose twice)
From the NHK English Service in Tokyo, this news report from August 4th about the upcoming 65th anniversary of the atomic bomb attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Marking the anniversary is UN Secretary General Ban-ki Moon, who arrived in Tokyo, pledging UN support for a ban on nuclear weapons. In lieu of the news of Iran's burgeoning nuclear program, that would seem unlikely for the foreseeable future. But it is a reminder of the terrible consequences nuclear power can produce.
Controversy and opinions on the validity of our use of the Atomic bomb to bring about a swift end to the Pacific portion of World War 2 still rage. The answers over time become more difficult since the effects of the devastation are still being felt, generations later. Was this ultimately the deterrent to future world wars? I don't think that can ever be known because the nature of war has changed so dramatically since 1945. But war in itself still persists. Genocide still exists and false, self-serving ideals still exist.
Hiroshima and Nagasaki may have made it possible for the end of the Big War, but it signaled the start of countless small ones.
And that sad fact may never go away.
