Hiroshima Spores

I wasn’t alive in August 1945 – I arrived eleven years and a day after Fat Man was dropped on Nagasaki. I knew nothing of the horrors of those atomic bombs until I saw ‘The Bomb’, Episode 24 of ’The World at War’, a documentary series I watched with my father and, more recently, with my husband.

As a child, I was shocked mute by previous episodes and scenes of the holocaust. I had learnt from various sources that Hitler and the Nazis were evil ‘baddies’, but I remember wondering how, after witnessing the horrors of Europe, the ‘goodies’ could wreak such diabolical destruction and the aftermath of radiation sickness on innocent human beings, in what President Truman called ‘the greatest thing in history’.

a mushroom rises
ready for early harvest
Hiroshima spores

Kim M. Russell, 6th August 2018

Image result for hiroshima mushroom cloud Pinterest
Image found on Pinterest

My response to dVerse Poets Pub Haibun Monday: Peace Memorial

This Monday we have Frank J. Tassone guest hosting for this Monday’s haibun prompt, with Hiroshima Day as the topic. He reminds us that today marks the anniversary of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima with the annual ceremony at Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park.

He says that the Hiroshima bombing has had a profound impact on the world; poets have responded with haiku, some examples of which he has shared with us.

Frank asks us to commemorate Hiroshima Day with our own poetry in poems that state or allude to either the Hiroshima attack or one of the themes of the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Ceremony, such as peace, the abolition of nuclear weapons, or the horror of nuclear war.

37 thoughts on “Hiroshima Spores”

    1. Thank you, Toni. I am dismayed at the violence that still goes on: the struggles for power and religious wars, men posturing and calling each other names like children in a playground. Now, if women were to take over and run everything…

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    2. They wanted to clear the earth of the Japanese. There was an island, I forget the name, where Japanese troops were firmly entrenched. the American army shelled it into obliteration while they watched in horror as Japanese women, children, elderly jumped to their deaths in the sea around them.

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  3. Was it necessary or good after all? The aftermath was very devastating to the innocent citizens. Those mushroom spores are terrifying to look at – thanks for the reminder Kim.

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  5. The inhumanity of total war couldn’t be more evident than the close of WWII. I like how you bring your own confusion over the actions of the allies to life. You so mirror our own by doing so. The imagery in your haiku is wonderful! Thank you, Kim!

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  6. I am touched by how so many of us were/are involved personally by this prompt. It is fact that Japan did not surrender after Hiroshima, so Nagasaki had to be sacrificed; even then the Japanese military wanted to fight on. It was the Emperor who made the decision.

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  7. Like you I was a child born after WW2. My childhood was peppered with images and stories of the war. Like you I wondered how the allies could wreak such destruction after being victims of it. Your haibun reminded me, once again, of how precious peace is.

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  8. The world Wars were ruthless and brutal. Soldiers were gassed and the Germans created one horrific way to kill after another. I lost my great grandfather in WW1 , my grandfather was wounded and held prisoner by the Japanese, relentless warriors with no regard for the lives of the “enemy”. The use of the A Bomb will go Down in history as an unforgivable act as will the rounding up and killing of millions of Jews by Hitlers nazi’s. Now we have placed our arsenal of death I’m the hands of an unhinged racist. Hopefully he will leave his term without provoking a nuclear war.

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  15. There are no good or bad sides. I think that’s the first lesson of war and never mind that the history is not only written but manipulated by the victors too. Maybe it wasn’t a necessity, maybe it was. It’s nothing to be proud of, and definitely not the greatest thing.
    Your prose is powerful and that mushroom cloud with Hiroshima pores create such a grim mood, which is both evocative and enraging at once.
    -HA

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    1. With any luck we won’t be here to witness it. I fear for our children and grandchildren. Ellen brought Lucas to visit this weekend. I love being his nanny!

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