The Meaning of HIROSHIMA - B Charles Braden - August 1980

B Charles Braden

Thirty-five years ago an atom bomb exploded over Hiroshima, Japan. The impact was felt around the earth. People were shocked, stunned! Deep down, everyone knew the world would never again be the same. What has occurred in the 35 years since is a matter of record. The scientific advances, the arms race, the effect of the nuclear age upon peoples and nations are all too familiar - we live with it every day. Yet the full significance of the dangerous age in which we live is only now beginning to dawn. On the morning of August 6, 1945, it was wartime business as usual in Hiroshima. The streets were full of people. Men and women on their way to work or shopping, children going to school. The air raid siren started to scream. But no one paid any attention. The lone aircraft over the city was thought to be on a reconnaissance mission and did not appear as a threat. Forty-three seconds later, there was a searing, blinding flash, brighter and hotter than a thousand suns. Instantly, within a half mile of ground zero, people, animals, carts and houses were no more. They simply evaporated. Disintegrating bodies, in some cases, left permanent "shadows" etched on rocks or concrete surfaces. - Information Supplied By: Herbert W Armstrong Library