President Barack Obama made a welcomed address Friday during a visit to Hiroshima, Japan, about the nuclear bombings that took place at the end of World War II on Aug. 6, 1945 when America dropped a bomb on that city that killed some 170,000 people and three days later on Nagasaki where 70,000 more perished. Though his visit to the oriental island republic lasted less than two hours, it put an important message across that nuclear war should not lie in our future.
The war had started with a sneak attack by Japan on America’s base at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii using old fashioned bombs. It ended shortly after the Nagasaki attack with Japan’s surrender to the new form of weaponry.
Perhaps there was need for the atomic attacks at that time since Japan was the aggressor, but the fact that atomic attacks can kill so many civilians who had no part in declaring the war to begin with in spite of the Pearl Harbor attacks may make them excessively aggressive.
But, regardless, we ended up ending an unnecessary war that left the world at peace again.
After the solemn ceremony ended Friday, Obama and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe placed wreaths in front of the cenotaph, a stone monument at Hiroshima’s Peace Memorial Park, which apparently was named after the catastrophic occurrence.
And at its conclusion, Obama closed his eyes and bowed his head as the clicking of cameras put his message across.
Obama described Hiroshima as a fitting place to summon the people everywhere to come and embrace the vision of a world without nuclear weapons. And that feeling should be shared by other people around the world about other places where killings take place without the use of atomic weapons.
As the leading power in the world, the United States of America took the lead in developing atomic weapons which eventually led to our use of them. Those two uses in Japan seemed necessary to end a violence that made the Pacific Ocean into a major territory for a new world war.
Even with what appeared to be the ending of the nuclear war threat, there are still countries in the world that are proceeding with development of nuclear weapons that can terminate our earth for eternity. Foremost among them is North Korea, which has been developing nuclear weapons that can be aimed at the United States and the rest of the world for the obvious purpose.
It is time for a president and other leaders around the world to form an alliance to put nuclear weapons and destruction into the history books.
We can only do it collectively in a firm manner to keep any of our countries from going astray.
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