80 Years Later, Remembering and Repenting The Atomic Bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki

Via Pat Ferrone, St. Susanna Pax Christi

“The first use of an atomic bomb, “Little Boy,” was exploded over Hiroshima, Japan on August
6, 1945. Its explosive power immediately annihilated between 70,000 and 80,000 human
beings, and maimed uncountable others. By the end of 1945, 140,000 were dead. Just 3 days
later, knowing the effects of the first bomb, “Fat Man” was dropped on Nagasaki, killing 40,000
people instantly, with estimates of up to 100,000 dead within 5 years: innocent men, women
and children. Years later, Albert Einstein was to lament what he believed was his contribution to
these horrific events. He wrote, “If I had foreseen Hiroshima and Nagasaki, I would have torn
up my formula in 1905.”

Now, eighty years later, with nine nuclear nations possessing enough nuclear weapons to
cause the deaths of millions and millions of people, the devastation of our global home, the
destruction of cultures, and nuclear winter, we raise our voices to plead for the only sane
option available to us: that nuclear weapons be banished from this earth, beginning with our
very own efforts in the United States. Currently, we are pursuing a program to update our
nuclear arsenal, at a staggering cost of $1.7 trillion over 30 years.

On Wednesday, August 6, at 4:30 pm, a program planned by the St. Susanna Pax Christi
Group, will take place on the Dedham Town Green to remember the world-shattering events of
August 6 and 9, 1945. Part of the program will be a shared reading of “Original Child Bomb,”
written in 1962 by Thomas Merton, Trappist monk. We will lament the past, and acknowledge
the present danger of a nuclear exchange. This year, the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists set
the “Doomsday Clock” at 89 seconds to midnight – the closest ever to human extinction.
Please join us as we commit ourselves to urge our government, and the world, to move “Back
from the Brink” of nuclear war.”