| August 6, 2007 will mark 62 years since the | | | | development of atomic power in 1939 and who |
| dropping of an atomic bomb on the Japanese city | | | | subsequently became the project's chief physicist, |
| of Hiroshima in 1945. Many people including the | | | | developed such misgivings as the research |
| pilot of the Enola Gay, Paul Tibbets, believed that | | | | progressed that he drafted a formal petition to |
| his mission would bring an end to the war with | | | | the U.S. president signed by 69 fellow scientists |
| Japan. The 20-year-old colonel had named the | | | | warning of the bomb's potential consequences. On |
| B-29 Superfortress after his mother. Little did he | | | | July 17, 1945 they requested that the petition be |
| know that the victims would number over | | | | delivered to Truman, though whether the |
| 230,000. The dropping of the atomic bomb on | | | | president received it before August 6 is also |
| Hiroshima, and on Nagasaki three days later | | | | debated. "I remind you that if Hiroshima is ever |
| marked the beginning of the Nuclear Age, a new | | | | repeated, it will mark the end of the human race. |
| era insofar as moral values in society are | | | | I pray that the future generation will look deeply |
| concerned. The official Web site of the annual | | | | into the meaning of Hiroshima and strive to build a |
| Peace Memorial Ceremony for Hiroshima sets | | | | world free of nuclear weapons," said Yoshitaka |
| aside August 6 "to console the souls of those | | | | Kawamoto, one of the few survivors, in another |
| who were lost due to the atomic bombing as well | | | | article In His Own Words, written by Vision.org |
| as pray for the realization of everlasting world | | | | publisher David Hulme. Sixty years after the |
| peace." The Peace Declaration, which is delivered | | | | explosion over Hiroshima, one thoughtful man |
| by the Mayor of Hiroshima during the ceremony, | | | | reminded us that "we have to learn to think in a |
| is sent to every country in the world thus | | | | new way." In a May 17, 2005 New York Times |
| conveying Hiroshima's wish for the abolition of | | | | op-ed piece, 97-year-old Nobel prize winner Joseph |
| nuclear weapons and the realization of eternal | | | | Rotblat, the only scientist to have resigned from |
| world peace. At exactly 8:15 a.m., the time the | | | | the Manhattan Project on moral grounds, referred |
| atomic bomb was dropped, the Peace Bell is rung, | | | | to the Russell-Einstein Manifesto of 1955. Rotblat |
| sirens sound all over the city and for one minute | | | | and 10 other scientists signed that manifesto |
| people at the ceremony grounds, in households | | | | against nuclear war, which was Albert Einstein's |
| and in workplaces pay silent tribute to the victims | | | | last public undertaking just before his death, to |
| of the atomic bombing and pray for the realization | | | | restore moral values in society. Einstein, like |
| of everlasting world peace. In a compelling | | | | Rotblat, chose repeatedly to warn against the |
| Vision.org article focusing on the moral ethics of | | | | human folly of nuclear development for |
| such social issues as Hiroshima the writer, Donald | | | | aggressive purposes. The emperor of Japan had |
| R. Hornsby, describes both sides of this historical | | | | led his nation into a costly war that resulted in the |
| event. For those in Hiroshima who survived the | | | | deaths of thousands and the complete destruction |
| "rain of ruin," it was the closest thing to a living | | | | of two cities. He uttered one wish for his country: |
| nightmare that they could have imagined. In | | | | "Let the entire nation continue as one family from |
| addition to this human nightmare, the bomb | | | | generation to generation." Since 1947, Japan has |
| damaged or destroyed nearly 70,000 of | | | | set aside August 6 as a current social event, a |
| Hiroshima's 76,000 buildings. In 1939 military | | | | time to focus on the vision of obtaining peace for |
| intelligence uncovered the fact that Nazi Germany | | | | all generations. In a prophecy delivered just before |
| was nearing completion of a weapon using nuclear | | | | His death, Jesus of Nazareth spoke of a time of |
| fission. By 1941 the United States had entered an | | | | great trouble such as the world has never seen, |
| unprecedented race to develop a nuclear weapon. | | | | and said that "unless those days were shortened, |
| This effort was known as the Manhattan Project. | | | | no flesh would be saved" (Matthew 24:22). Taken |
| When U.S. president Franklin Roosevelt died in April | | | | together with other prophetic statements that |
| 1945, American, British and Canadian scientists and | | | | seem to describe the effects of future |
| specialists were determined, as were the nations | | | | horrendous weapons (see Revelation 9), what |
| of the Allied Forces, to find a solution towards a | | | | happened to two cities in Japan will be only the |
| rapid end to the war. Harry Truman made the | | | | beginning of sorrows. Today as the world |
| final decision to deploy the bomb over Japan: a | | | | wrestles with the legacy of Hiroshima, there are |
| course of action that has been the subject of | | | | fears that rogue nations may unleash the nuclear |
| moral debate throughout the 62 years since. Leo | | | | genie from the bottle one more time. |
| Szilard, one of the scientists who encouraged the | | | | |