Hiroshima and Nagasaki happened 63 years ago and it's starting to feel like ancient history. It's hard to have emotional connection with people and events that happened several generations ago.

Tuesday 05th August, 07:28 AM JST

John Loretz, program director of International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War in Cambridge, Massachusetts. (Kyodo)

› Login to comment

10 Comments

Rigs83 at 12:01 PM JST - 5th August

To forget history is to damn yourself to repeating it.
MPNiea at 12:55 PM JST - 5th August

We are doomed to repeat history, as it is human nature. Forgetting it or remembering is meaningless.
Lover_Boy_America at 01:46 PM JST - 5th August

Thanks for this comment regarding Nagasaki and what happened 63 years ago. Even tho it was a terrible thing that occured, what really worrys me now in our World of so many people is simply this: After all the destruction caused way back then to so many lives due to a bomb like no other has ever been, WHY is it now....that it comes across as tho Nobody Remembers any of this....??? People in countrys like Iran seem to think that those nuclear devices were never something that ever really happened. Korea the same. WHY? One would think that after all the sufferings of so many people, that No Country would EVER even "think" of ever detonating anymore Nuclear devices...Anywhere...! In closing, it would seem that the scientists who put these lil' puppies together, would more than anyone else realize so many of the real dangers presented by these devices. What can happen to the Earth's upper biospheres as well as the contamination that can be spread across large areas of this planet Earth. Not to mention Earth Quakes...! Will People EVER Learn...??? I wish You All Well,....and ....I Wish You All...{{{ PEACE }}}
stubar at 02:14 PM JST - 5th August

In what context was this said? By just reading this alone makes the comment sound ridiculous. Unless we have experienced such suffering ourselves we can't have emotional connection with any victim no matter when or where it happened, 500 years ago or yesterday. To "Lover Boy America": It's amusing how you note "countries like Iran....(and North)Korea" to be the culprits of keeping nuclear weapons in existence. The only thing that Iran and North Korea have in common is the possession of Nuclear weapons. So if you were to add "like" countries to that list the US would be right at the top. NK and Iran possess them as a deterrence against US aggression. Why can't NK and Iran possess them if the US posses so many more? If the US wants peace they would sign Australia's anti nuclear treaty (no possession of or intention to make nuclear weapons). Only Japan has signed on so far.
LIBERTAS at 02:19 PM JST - 5th August

Upon seeing the horror he had help unleash, he said,"If the radiance of a thousand suns were to burst at once into the sky that would be like the splendor of the Mighty One... I am become Death, the Shatterer of Worlds." J. Robert Oppenheimer (1904 - 1967)

It would appear that some with itchy trigger fingers have forgotten, "they have become death, the shatterer of worlds."
riccichan at 06:32 PM JST - 5th August

You CAN be emotionally connected while not having suffered through a trauma. Just watch one of the documentaries on the a-bomb (I highly recommend "White Light, Black Rain") and then tell me again that you have no emotional response to this.

I also firmly believe that it does make a difference to remember. Discussing this politically will always result in heated disagreement, as past discussions about this topic have shown. But it's not necessary to consider the political context in order to not want this atrocity to ever happen to another human being again.

As many writers since then have stressed to say (Inoue Hisashi being one of them), "the atom bomb didn't fall just on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. It fell on the whole of humankind."
presto345 at 09:54 PM JST - 5th August

63 years ago, ancient history? Does the man comprehend the meaning of 'ancient'? I doubt it. The city of Hiroshima, where I live, has a population of 1 million. I am sure these people don't consider the obscene destruction caused by the A-bomb ancient history. Nor would the millions of visitors from all over the world who have come to witness the evidence of the carnage.
ExPrinceska at 10:04 PM JST - 5th August

I think this comment is very insensitive and cruel to the people of Nagasaki and Hiroshima who still feel and will feel the consequences of the radioation for many years to come. Radioactivity can cause many diseases cancer and physical deformities that could appear in the future generations...63 years are nothing compared to the harmful period of radiation consequences.
Eulji_Mundeok at 08:12 AM JST - 6th August

I'm actually watching the Hiroshima Peace Ceremony on NHK now.

Neither Hiroshima nor Nagasaki deserved to be nuked, but neither also would Kyushu have deserved a far bloodier invasion or Hokkaido and Tohoku have deserved to be turned into a Japanese version of North Korea.

Japan may have been on its last legs/"defeated" by the spring of 1945 (just as Germany was in late 1944), but just as the Allies marched (and fought) all the way to Berlin, we shouldn't expect the Americans to have stopped short of Tokyo and an occupation of the entire country.
USAPatriot at 08:15 AM JST - 6th August

ExPrinceska; You can blame the Japanese Imperial army for the bombing. If they didnt invade Asia and start a war with the US and UK , they wouldnt have been bombed, end of story.