by B. R. GOWANI
this is about a 10-year-old boy …
a victim of the atom bomb the US dropped <1>
on Nagasaki …
he’s one of the “survivors”
carrying his dead baby brother on his back
tied to his body with a harness …
standing motionless and alert in military posture
as he awaits his turn,
an emotionless face,
his very existence arrested in time …
until …
the men in white masks took the child
the infant was carried off by his arms and feet …
why?
the baby was dead-a corpse to be taken away for cremation
the boy watched paralyzed
as his brother’s little body was being put on the pyre
his lower lip displayed blood as he bit his lip <2>
he waited agonizingly …
till the flame on the body began dying
he then turned slowly and walked away …
the boy was an edifice of strength
as the situation demanded of him
but he was fighting a great emotional war,
not with the enemy …
because the enemy does not come face to face
the enemy is a coward —
it rains bombs and fires from the air
the boy was fighting with himself – the fight was
not to cry, cringe, complain
to maintain composure, sanity
to control his rage, hatred, grief …
because it was a matter of honor and respect for the baby
in this final parting moment from his beloved,
he had to forget himself, even if momentarily,
he had to suppress his own pain, sorrow and loss
this is but one face of a victim <3>
to have to constantly fight & struggle
against the never ending battles of evil adults …
the boy told his schoolmate Masanori Muraoka :
Muraoka replied:
“Maybe she’s looking for you.”
Quoted in The Mainichi, “Nagasaki survivor donates notebook on his bid to identify boy in A-bomb photo” (August 28, 2019).
who can feel the mental anguish of this boy?
who can imagine the personal loss he felt?
who can feel the pain and grief …of his little heart?
who can sense the tormented existence of this boy?
NOTES
<1> the third of the three atom bombs dropped by the United States
1st was code-named “Trinity” and tested in New Mexico on 7/16/1945
2nd named “Little Boy” was dropped on Hiroshima, Japan on 8/6/1945
3rd was named “Fat Boy” and detonated on Nagasaki, Japan on 8/6/1945
<2> Joe O’Donnell, then worked for the United States Marine Corps
took this picture and described boy’s condition
See Vintage Everyday
<3> more than two millennia ago Antigone had to fight
her maternal uncle King Creon who had prohibited
a burial or mourning for her brother Polynices
Antigone defied Creon and got caught — she defended herself thus:
“So for me to meet this doom is trifling grief; but if I had suffered my mother’s son to lie in death an unburied corpse, that would have grieved me; for this, I am not grieved. And if my present deeds are foolish in thy sight, it may be that a foolish judge arraigns my folly.”
Sophocles, Antigone (written in 5th century BCE). (Translated by Richard Claverhouse Jebb in 1917.) The above quote is from 450-470.
(Link to part 2, Was inflicting atom bombs on Japanese cities necessary?)
B. R. Gowani can be reached at brgowani@hotmail.com