Introduction
The Hiroshima and Nagasaki atomic bombings of 1945 were the most devastating bomb attacks in history. The bomb attacks marked the end of the Second World War with the final surrender of Japan and eventual occupation of United States (Dower 116). Their effect caused heavy casualties in human lives numbering hundreds of thousands and also brought about immense human suffering and heavy damages to the two cities (US department of energy 3). Their effects will surely remain fresh in the minds of the victims, those affected and those witnessed them. Lives of people around and the affected environment were permanently changed by bombings whose effects will be felt for hundred of years to come. This paper is a narration of my real life experience as a victim of the Nagasaki bombing.
The Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombing
It was on the fateful morning of 9th August 1945, when I was attending my mathematics lesson that I first heard the deafening sound of a B239 bomber aircraft circling our city. The school program came at a standstill as the atmosphere changed. Our school had yet to be evacuated following a series of evacuation programs initiated by the local authorities to remove people especially students from high risk areas. I was 14 then in my 10th grade when the inevitable happened that dramatically changed my life permanently. I knew it was a matter of seconds before the bombing started. I shot forward and tossed myself in an embankment at a construction site dug out by builders who were putting up a library extension some ten meters away from our class.
As fate would have it, in a spilt second the B29 fighter jet took a maneuver as I edged into my landing and what followed is something I had never experienced in my life. A deafening bang ripped off virtually everything around leaving me temporary deaf. A ghastly strong wave of hot dust storm swept across the land as everything around was strewn off. I was forcibly knocked off balance landing five meters away from my target on a hip of debris. I was hit on my forehead and I could tell that my left foot had been severed by a sharp object. My clothes were shred leaving me virtually naked. Nothing made sense to me at the particular moment. As a result of the sharp blow on my forehead I temporarily lost my consciousness.
On regaining my consciousness, I found myself trapped in a heap of debris and dust in the embankment. The air was rent with cracking sounds as fire gutted the few remaining buildings left. Apart from the unending explosions there were no sign of human life. The ensuing moments of the eventful morning had almost taken away my sanity. My head was throbbing and I could feel a burning sensation at my back from something that felt like an acid burn. My mouth was dry partly from shock and dehydration. Heavy black smoke rent the air and I could tell the explosion had come almost a kilometer on my left near the Mitsubishi Ordinance factory that manufactured armament.
I checked around and what I saw sent chills down my spine. Parts of badly burnt bodies were strewn all over the place while charred bodies littered what was one our school compound. What was once a magnificent educational complex was flattened to the ground leaving the whole place looking like a massive grave yard. For the first time I doubted my sanity and whether I was alive in the first place. I thought about my best friend Shimura and the thought of death really scared me. I feared for the safety of my parents and the rest of my classmates who might have been buried arrive in the rubbles. Life lost meaning as the world seemed to have come to ultimate end to me.
Using a plank of wood, I made an attempt to a safer place since the place was still burning and suddenly from within I had someone call me Kato from behind. Akihito, one of my school mates stood behind me with blood dripping from all over his body. He had managed to escape death although with serious injuries I helped him out and speechless we walked on towards an unknown destination. As we moved on we discovered other survivors who moved about confused with various degree of injuries. We forgot the pain of our own injuries and helped pull the few survivors from the rubbles.
In about a few hours later emergency services were trickling in and we were airlifted to a hospital. My leg was amputated since it threatened to form gangrene which could be fatal. The nation as learnt later was gripped with fear and shock. Close to 80, 000 lives had been lost and I was shocked at how modern technological advancement could be counterproductive. This hostility had to end otherwise the world risked its own extinction through similar wars. I committed myself towards the course of preaching peace and dialogue across the world. On leaving hospital, I discovered that I had lost all my family members in what I saw as a self seeking atrocity by human beings against their fellows. The plutonium bomb nicknamed Fat man had brought terrible devastation over land killing animals and burning plants while bringing infrastructure to its knees (Hiroshima day committee 1).
I was fixed with a false leg that I adapted to and my crusade against nuclear weapons was born. I was transferred to another school where I founded the student organization for global peace organization as I proceeded with my education. Along with my friend Kunjiro we managed to set up several other such initiatives in other learning institutions until we completed our college education. As I graduated with a law degree, my chief concern was that any other nuclear weapon in today’s world would wipe off humanity along his civilization.
Conclusion
The ultimate answer to the world nuclear threat today lies in establishing dialogue with all the world leaders on how to end production of nuclear arms. The bombing of the cities brought serious devastation on the civilians and unending suffering to the injured that bore the blunt of the attacks (World-War-2.info 1). Any further manufacture of such arms is a threat to humanity and the entire human civilization. All attempts to develop further nukes must be abandoned to avert any race towards production of nuclear arms.
Works cited
Dower, John. The Bombed: Hiroshimas and Nagasakis in Japanese Memory. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press, 1996.
Hiroshima day committee. “Hiroshima & Nagasaki bombing: Facts about the Atomic Bomb”.
US department of energy. “The Atomic Bombing of Nagasaki”. The Manhattan Project. Web.
World-War-2.info. “World War 2 Atomic Bomb”. World-War-2.info. 2009.