Seventy years after the first atomic bomb was dropped over the Japanese city of Hiroshima, during a recent visit, US President Barack Obama’s recalled the atrocities his country had committed on humanity as a whole.
The White House had earlier mentioned that there wouldn’t be an apology on the part of the President on the grave error the United States had made, but a first ever visit by a sitting US President signals a positive trend. Apparently, he should have bowed his head before the Japanese community while leading the way to the ‘live graveyard’ from 1945.
Even though nuclear disarmament remains a key focus in world forums, not particularly focusing on defence procurement, the recent years have witnessed more countries trying to acquire the technological know-how to build nuclear weapons with an unjustifiable demand to safeguard their land and people. The suffering of those who have survived radiation exposure in Hiroshima and Nagasaki has been an eye opener for the world, explaining how deeply such an action has influenced human beings, animals, birds, plants, etc. on Mother Earth.
From a personal perceptive, it was a clear leadership failure, an immature choice made by the then US administration which opted for such an extreme step, apparently taking out a piece of the earth with all its resources. As far as the United States is concerned, it was an opportunity to test the country’s weapons of mass destruction and remain aggressive by accumulating thousands of nuclear weapons in their stockpile.
Meanwhile, the collapse of the twin towers in crowded New York in 2001 has proved that having nuclear weapons cannot stop overseas aggression. The aftermath of similar attacks on any of the nuclear storage sites in any part of the world would be much larger and beyond imagination, wherein security becomes the priority.
Therefore, retaining nuclear weapons remains a threat to the world, and to begin with United States and Russia should be the first to set an example by defusing thousands of their nuclear devices, which are part of their defence stockpile. While almost half of US citizens in a poll justified dropping the bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, how did they equate this with the fall of the twin towers in New York?
At the same time, the continuing conflicts across the world are costing much more than anything else and the suffering of these people remains unattended. Lack of basic needs continues to hurt the sentiments of people, due to which faith in real life expectations has to be nurtured again.
A peaceful coexistence for human beings, animals and birds supported by green surroundings is what life is all about. This can only be achieved by actions and that make life meaningful and different in showing the way forward.
Notwithstanding President Obama’s visit to the memorial in Hiroshima, his gesture must be viewed positively and be seen as the expression of a kind of regret about what his predecessors had done decades ago.