Concerns of Today's Youth

What Are Your Thoughts About Hiroshima?
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As a volunteer at IslamOnline.net, I am being asked to look up things up about the day when Hiroshima was bombed. My general knowledge of Hiroshima and Nagasaki is very vague, even after reading a book about Hiroshima. But looking at the writings of the  Hibakusha (atom bomb survivors), it seems so awful. Even though it was a war, what exactly can you do in war? There must be some kind of limit, especially when it comes to civilian targets, no matter how badly you want to win the war.

After Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japanese people seem to have turned totally towards peace, especially those affected by the atomic bombs. Of course, people all over the world are fighting against nuclear weapons, but are we succeeding in getting rid of them? With the war in Afghanistan and Iraq the answer is obviously “no.” History keeps repeating itself and people are still dying everyday, whether it’s in Chechnya, Iraq, Palestine, or Africa.

America doesn’t seem to have learned from Hiroshima and Nagasaki about how much destruction these weapons bring. As long as they aren’t being used against America, who cares how many people die in the world due to these weapons. And with the Middle East being a hot spot, Israel is not only a military threat to the region but also an environmental one as well. India and Pakistan seem to get along with their nuclear weapons.

Are we just going to watch the destruction nuclear weapons (or whatever other weapons they’ve come up with) bring to the Earth? There’s nothing wrong with war if there is a reason, a cause, but that doesn’t mean using any available weapon. In Islam, you aren’t supposed to kill women, children, old people; you aren’t even supposed to cut down trees unless in need of them. So, when are we going to actually do something about these weapons and pressure the “great” countries to get rid of them? I hope that will be soon.

When I learned about Hiroshima, I felt sick but no more sick than I feel when I learn about any innocent people getting killed. I guess Hiroshima is worse because so many people were killed and in such an awful way. To be burned up and die slowly like so many Hiroshima victims did, is a horrific way to die.

What surprises me is that despite knowing all this, until now, many countries continue to make such bombs as well as the excuses to justify throwing them on innocent people.

This situation reminds me of the bully in the play ground at school. The kids are afraid of him/her because they know the bully has no limits. Because they are afraid, they don't think of confronting the bully. If they could just organize themselves and be united, they could wipe out the bully who is usually only bluffing everyone and getting away with it.

The people who want peace (I believe they are the majority) should unite to combat the people and governments who could even consider to use such kinds of horrific weapons. The bomb throwers need a brain makeover.

Name: Randa
Age: 15 years
Country: Egypt

Children are happy everywhere, but there are children in Hiroshima who can't be happy, can't play or run, and their parents are always sad for them. It's all because of an atomic bomb that exploded there.

There are children who didn't enjoy their childhood, and there were children, in 1945, who felt they were part of the reason why their loved ones died because they couldn't do anything to save them. Their families and neighbors suffered and died in front of their eyes, and they stood still in shock and fear, unable to do anything for them

I feel very sad for them. We must all pray for the people of Hiroshima.

On August 6 and 9, 1945, the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki were destroyed by the first atomic bombs used in warfare. I want to answer the people who say that it's ok to drop the bomb.

My opinion is that the real terrorism is dropping bombs on civilians/innocent people. No matter what good the governments think might come of dropping such a bomb, it is a bad mark on humanity. It is ok for governments to drop a bomb on the other side of the world in the name of democracy but they wouldn't like it, if that was done to them in the name of freedom or anything else. Didn't you see how they killed many innocent people and finally they said they were right just because they make the rules. Allah help us if the US says they are the police force of the world.

Hiroshima and Nagasaki are the two most important places in the world where memory is preserved about what nuclear weapons do to people and to cities. Each year on August 6th and 9th respectively—the anniversaries of the bombings—the mayors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki deliver peace declarations for their cities. These statements provide the pulse of the status of efforts to eliminate the nuclear weapons threat to humanity and all life.

On the 60th anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima, Mayor Tadatoshi Akiba lamented that the painful experience of those who survived the bombings “appears to be fading from the collective memory of humankind,” and that consequently, “the probability that nuclear weapons will be used and the danger of nuclear war are increasing.”

Mayor Akiba noted that the “path of reconciliation…has been abandoned.” He called for “conscientious exploration and understanding of the past.” To achieve this end, he called for establishing a “Hiroshima-Nagasaki peace study course in colleges and universities around the world,” and indicated that plans for this are already in progress. He also urged President Bush to visit Hiroshima and Nagasaki to “confirm with his own eyes what nuclear weapons hold in store for us all.” Thus far, no American president has visited either city.

Mayor Akiba called upon the government of Japan “to reject nuclear weapons absolutely and to renounce war.” The Japanese government, he said, “has a responsibility to convey the memories, voices, and prayers of Hiroshima and Nagasaki throughout the world, especially to the United States, and for the sake of tomorrow’s children, to prevent war.”

Mayor Iccho Itoh of Nagasaki condemned the United States for its withdrawal from the Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) Treaty; its rejection of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty; and its plans to move forward with missile defenses, to develop a new generation of nuclear weapons, and to use preemptive nuclear strikes. “We are appalled,” he said, “by this series of unilateral actions taken by the government of the United States, actions which are also being condemned by people of sound judgment throughout the world.”

Mayor Itoh called for the government of Japan to confirm in law the three non-nuclear principles that have guided Japan (that it will not possess, manufacture or allow nuclear weapons into the country). He also called for the Japanese government to help create a Northeast Asian nuclear weapons-free zone, to cease its reliance on the US “nuclear umbrella,” and “to enhance the welfare of aging atomic bomb survivors residing both within and without Japan.”

Mayor Itoh announced that the city of Nagasaki would be hosting in 2005 a second worldwide gathering of civil society organizations to add impetus to efforts to eliminate nuclear weapons. The city of Nagasaki, he said, will also be reaching out to youth by promoting the Nagasaki peace education program.

“The abolition of nuclear arms through mutual understanding and dialogue,” said Mayor Itoh, “is an absolute precondition for the realization of a peaceful world. It is up to us ordinary citizens to rise up and lead the world to peace.”

Ordinary citizens of the United States must soon come to understand the critical message of Hiroshima and Nagasaki being conveyed by the mayors of these cities on behalf of those who perished and those who survived the atomic bombings. Without such understanding, and with such enormous power left in the hands of men like Bush and many of his advisors shaping nuclear policy, the world moves closer to the day when more cities will share the fate of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

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