Tuesday 3 August 2010

Hiroshima and Nagasaki Exhibition, London

Sixty-five years ago on Friday, atomic bombs landed on Hiroshima, then on Nagasaki.  These towns were not military targets. Most of those killed were children, women and the elderly.  "The world's worst terrorist attack".

An exhibition commemorating Hiroshima and Nagasaki opens this week in London. See some of the objects HERE. Simple objects, like a blouse a girl sewed herself from her mum's old kimono. Her mother had to rip it off because the girl, no more than a child,  was covered in burns.  A survivor will be speaking, too,  There aren't many left after 65 years, though many have been born since with birth defects and cancers.. 

What has been learned? When Tony bLiar can hoodwink a nation into war on flimsy evidence yet come out shining with glory, any morality?  On 9/11, those who were trapped sent out messages of love, not hate. It was intensely beautiful: hope rising from the ruins. Instead, Iraq, the Vietnam quagmire again, on a bigger scale. Maybe our worst enemies are not outsiders at all.

In 1918, revenge against Germany set the scenario in which Hitler came to power. In 1945, some lessons were learned. Madness muliplies easily. Breaking the cycle of hate is more difficult. Read more about the exhibition HERE on the Society of Friends website.

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