The nine days that led to Peace eighty years ago

At 8:15 a.m. on Aug. 6, 1945, 80 years ago today, some 350,000 people in Hiroshima were just beginning their day when a uranium bomb, nicknamed “Little Boy,” dropped by Enola Gay, detonated 580 metres above the city, killing an estimated 70,000 people.

Three days later, at 11:02 a.m. on Aug. 9, U.S. forces dropped a plutonium bomb, codenamed “Fat Man,” on Nagasaki, which exploded at 503 metres, killing another 40,000 people.

Japan surrendered days later and World War II ended on Victory in Japan (VJ) Day, 15 August 1945, eighty years ago this month.

The forgotten victory, partly because of the world entering the Nuclear Age with a huge loss of life.

The threat of nuclear war has helped to keep peace ever since, but with wars in Ukraine, Palestine, and threats from elsewhere like Iran, I wonder if we are nearer now than at any time since the end of hostilities in 1945 to another nuclear attack.

Hopefully, as we commemorate the end of World War II and remember the huge loss of life in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and generally in the preceding years across the Far East all those years ago, the world can come to its senses.

To everyone who gave their lives so that we could live in relative peace for the last 8 decades, especially this month in the Far East, and to all who suffered as a result, thank you. You should never be forgotten.

At the going down of the sun, and in the morning, we will remember them.

We also commemorate those who died and suffered a lifetime of ill health in those two nuclear bombs.

平, 和, 泰

(The Kanji for Peace, Symbols of Harmony in Japan)