70th Anniversary of Hiroshima

Today marks the 70th anniversary of the United States’ use of an atomic bomb to decimate the Japanese city of Hiroshima.

The Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum maintains a website with a Peace Database. It includes, among other materials, drawings by survivors of the bombing such as this one by Hideo Kimura.

It’s accompanied by the following comments:

“My classmates were screaming. Burned on their faces, arms, feet, legs, and backs. Trapped under heavy gates and houses, they screamed for help. Some were crying for help from the river, holding onto the stone embankment against the pull of the rising tide.”

As an immigration professor, this reminds me of how much we must try to stretch our imagination to comprehend the horrors faced by people far from our shores.

-KitJ