August 6, 2007 will mark 62 years since the dropping of an atomic bomb on the Japanese city of Hiroshima in 1945. Many people including the pilot of the Enola Gay, Paul Tibbets, believed that his mission would bring an end to the war with Japan. The 20-year-old colonel had named the B-29 Superfortress after his mother. Little did he know that the victims would number over 230,000. The dropping of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima, and on Nagasaki three days later marked the beginning of the Nuclear Age, a new era insofar as moral values in society are concerned.
The official Web site of the annual Peace Memorial Ceremony for Hiroshima sets aside August 6 "to console the souls of those who were lost due to the atomic bombing as well as pray for
the realization of everlasting world peace." The Peace Declaration, which is delivered by the Mayor of Hiroshima during the ceremony, is sent to every country in the world thus conveying
Hiroshima's wish for the abolition of nuclear weapons and the realization of eternal world peace.
At exactly 8:15 a.m., the time the atomic bomb was dropped, the Peace Bell is rung, sirens sound all over the city and for one minute people at the ceremony grounds, in households and in
workplaces pay silent tribute to the victims of the atomic bombing and pray for the realization of everlasting world peace.
In a compelling Vision.org article focusing on the moral ethics of such social issues as Hiroshima
(http://www.vision.org/visionmedia/article.aspxid=223&fragment=False&Terms=hiroshima&SearchType=AndWords), written by Vision.org publisher David Hulme.
Sixty years after the explosion over Hiroshima, one thoughtful man reminded us that "we have to learn to think in a new way." In a May 17, 2005 New York Times op-ed piece, 97-year-old
Nobel prize winner Joseph Rotblat, the only scientist to have resigned from the Manhattan Project on moral grounds, referred to the Russell-Einstein Manifesto of 1955. Rotblat and 10
other scientists signed that manifesto against nuclear war, which was Albert Einstein's last public undertaking just before his death, to restore moral values in society.. Einstein, like
Rotblat, chose repeatedly to warn against the human folly of nuclear development for aggressive purposes.
The emperor of Japan had led his nation into a costly war that resulted in the deaths of thousands and the complete destruction of two cities. He uttered one wish for his country: "Let
the entire nation continue as one family from generation to generation." Since 1947, Japan has set aside August 6 as a current social event, a time to focus on the vision of obtaining
peace for all generations.
In a prophecy delivered just before His death, Jesus of Nazareth spoke of a time of great trouble such as the world has never seen, and said that "unless those days were shortened, no
flesh would be saved" (Matthew 24:22).
Taken together with other prophetic statements that seem to describe the effects of future horrendous weapons (see Revelation 9), what happened to two cities in Japan will be only the
beginning of sorrows.
Today as the world wrestles with the legacy of Hiroshima, there are fears that rogue nations may unleash the nuclear genie from the bottle one more time.