The morning I entered Hiroshima city, the sound of the air-raid siren sent chills down my spine. I headed straight to the site of the atomic blast.
Standing at ground zero, not far from the A-Dome, I was moved to tears. As I paused during the tolling of the peace bell, I could not help but reflect on the fact that over 50 years ago, on that very spot, hell was on earth.
As I stood there in silence, I was also struck by the present-day peacefulness around the site. There were families having picnics, children flying kites and the elderly relaxing on the park benches.
I visited the international church for peace and prayed for those two hundred thousand people in Hiroshima and Nagasaki that were killed as two atomic bombs detonated 500 meters above. Those blasts displayed the ugliness of mankind. Instead of diplomacy and learning from our past, we have created more sophisticated weapons to kill one another...an utter waste of the world’s creative and natural resources. |
