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Another Day in Infamy A Bestor Blog Best of

Another Day in Infamy A Bestor Blog Best of

Let me warn you right now.....this blog post is not your typical cheery Kurt Bestor posting. But I feel compelled to air some intense feelings publicly. Hopefully, this will strike a chord. If not, at least Ive started to share some feelings that have been eating away at me for more than 30 years.

�As the bomb fell over Hiroshima and exploded, we saw an entire city disappear. I wrote in my log the words: "My God, what have we done?""

Today the 69th anniversary of the dropping of the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki Japan. In Japan, the day was noted in muted contemplation and introspection. Survivors quietly wonder why they survived when 210,000 others did not. The shame of living in a country - at war with the world at that time - is only eclipsed by the shame of the physical and emotional scars that will haunt them for the rest of their lives.

For us who live in the only country to have ever used a nuclear bomb, we spent the day like most others - mindlessly going to the mall, eating too much fast food, and watching mind-numbing TV programs. Why does the horrific reality of August 6th, 1945 register so low on our countrys radar?

For me, the awareness began back in 1974 when I first read a small paperback book that my parents had in their library titled "Hiroshima." While I didnt have the world view that I do now, I was stunned at what I read - thousands of people literally frozen in various moments of everyday life - their charred bodies still shopping, sitting in city parks, holding a child. 120, 000 of innocent citizens in Hiroshima and 40,000 more in Nagasaki were killed that day.

In a documentary airing on HBO "White Light/Black Rain" - a handful of Japanese survivors recounted the moment of the bomb blast and the almost 60 years of pain that it cost. I was riveted as I heard one woman (then a ten-year-old girl) coming across her mothers charred body and, as she called out "Mommy" and reached out to her, her mothers remains suddenly fell to a pile of unrecognizable ashes. Another man recounts as he counted the nuclear-glistened bones of his 4 siblings and both parents who just hours before had been sitting at their family table together.

Somehow, at moments like this - all patriotism melts away and Im left to grieve at the loss and sorrow felt by a fellow human being. To me, it wasnt some "just punishment" meted out on a deserving "evil" nation. It was a conscious decision by people in power. Yes - it ended the war, but at what cost. I can no longer hear the words collateral damage" or "friendly fire" used by our military and political leaders without thinking of the analogous scenario played out in horrific detail 69 years before.

Im sorry it was my country that was the first and only one to drop these "weapons of mass destruction." Im sorry that we dont at least give a moment of silence for the victims each year. And Im sorry that we still have leaders and a culture that believes that unspeakable violence will somehow lead to peace.

To my Japanese friends - on this dreadful anniversary, all I can say is - Im sorry.

FACT: Today in the world there exists (primarily in the US) enough nuclear bombs to to equal 400,000 Hiroshimas

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