On Tuesday 6th August I represented Herefordshire Interfaith among a number of people commemorating the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Each year we meet at the cherry tree planted in Hereford cemetery and on most years the sun is shining as it was in Hiroshima on that fatal day. Tuesday was no exception.
I had watched a moving programme which was released in 2023. Here is the link if you feel that you would like to watch it. It is powerful and full of sadness but also a testament to human resilience, as some of those who on Miyuki bridge that day are interviewed for the film, as it tells their story. Hiroshima – the unknown images
Below are my musings that I read to the assembled group, which was organised by the local Peace Council.
Lama Choesang
8.15 in the morning. On the day of the bombing – 350,000 lived in Hiroshima. It was a lovely sunny day and people were going off to work
The same at 11.02am on the 9th August in Nagasaki
With some 195,000 people working in the area
The birth of nuclear bombing occurred
Immediately after the bombing there were a few photographs taken by a newspaper photographer who lived outside of the city. Yoshito Matsuhigay took some pictures on the Miyuki Bridge which is a link over the main river of Hiroshima where young people fleeing the flames were gathering.
One of these was Sunao Tsuboi, who is still alive today. He was 20 years old then and has given testimony on exactly what happened on the bridge at that time.
Every morning in Hiroshima at 8.15am there is a silence in the city at this time to remember and every year on the 6th August, people from all over the world congregate on the Miyuki bridge to celebrate peace. They do not solely commemorate the dead – that is done in private little prayer ceremonies at any point in the year that is relevant to those who lost friends, colleagues and family.
Those on Myuki bridge today, including Sunao Tsuboi, in offering their thoughts and prayers for peace somehow release us from our guilt that we naturally feel on this day. The sorrow, guilt and confusion that we feel over something that happened in a different time and with different parameters than those that we are fortunate to live by today
His Holiness The Dalai Lama said at the 75th anniversary of the bombing in 2020 – “As long as we have strong negative emotions and we view our fellow beings in terms of ‘us’ and ‘them’, there will be a tendency to try to destroy ‘them’. We must recognise the oneness of humanity, and understand that we will not achieve peace merely through prayer; we need to take action”.
Taking action to ensure peace in the future is within our grasp. Rectifying the past is not.
A Japanese Buddhist Group – SGI. SGI President Ikeda’s Poem
“Peace—The Foundation for Lasting Human Happiness”.
There is a path that birds follow as they fly through the sky.
There is a path that fish follow as they swim through the sea.
There is a path that the stars follow as they travel the heavens.
And there is a path of principle that human beings should follow.
This is none other than the path of peace.
Let us begin with what we can do.
Let us move forward – even if just an inch.
Let us climb that mountain,
and cross this river!
Let us dash over those fields
and traverse that hill!
Let us race to that town and talk with our friends!
We are ever filled with bright confidence,
that wonderful like-minded friends will someday follow in our footsteps!
If you have no hope,
create some.
If the world around you is dark,
be the sun that illuminates all.
Happiness is not something we attain by chasing after it.
Happiness comes to those who live with courage and tenacity.
Similarly, peace will come to human beings
when they lead lives of wisdom and principle.
Peace
is not something far away.
Peace is caring for and valuing a single individual.
It is bringing joy, not suffering to our mother.
It is reaching out to those who are different from us.
It is having the wisdom to reconcile after an argument.
And – it is protecting our beautiful natural world.
It is fostering a rich culture.
It is refusing to build our happiness on the misfortune of others.
And – it is sharing others’ joys and sufferings.
Those who can bring happiness to their friends
are experts in the art of happiness.
Those who can bring peace to their society – are emissaries of peace.
(April 2007)
(Translated from the June 12, 2011, issue of the Seikyo Shimbun, the Soka Gakkai daily newspaper