A Historic Moment

It was during this week 63 years ago that our military dropped two atomic bombs on large cities in Japan: Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The event brought about the end of World War II, although there were formalities to attend to and continuing battles on some of the Pacific islands. Debates have continued over the years as to whether or not it was the correct decision to drop the bombs. We will never know for certain. But we do know of some long-lasting effects of the radiation produced from the two bombs. We know of the cancer from radiation that took many lives in Japan even years later. We know of the permanent scars on the psyche of an entire nation who faced defeat and occupation. We know of effects upon our own military personnel from radiation left on the land long after the actual bombing. There were other long-ranging effects as well.

My husband Charlie is chronicling the history of an earlier war, and uncovered something surprising. He writes this:

“At the end of the Great War (WWI), 74 capital ships of the German High Seas Fleet were sailed from German waters by their German crews to be impounded at Scapa Flow in the Orkney Islands, the largest port in England. They were to wait there, captives of the British but commanded by Germans, until terms of the Treaty of Paris were negotiated. By June 21, 1919, the terms were known, including the surrender of the entire fleet to the British. At 10:30 on that morning, a prearranged signal from Admiral von Reuter, German commander of the fleet, ordered the fleet to be scuttled, rather than allow the British to add the fleet to their own navy. The skeleton German crews sank all but four of the ships (they were grounded) - a total of 400,000 tons of armored vessels. It was the largest maritime disaster in a single day in history.

“Between the World Wars, most of the ships were salvaged for scrap. By the end of the Second World War only three capital ships and several destroyers remained at Scapa Flow. Along with 100 German U-boats scuttled after the end of WWII, these ships today are one of the last readily available sources of non-radioactive steel. It seems that all steel made after the two atomic bombs fell on Japan in 1945 has contained tiny amounts of radioactivity. This is because the atmosphere now contains trace amounts of radioactive isotopes. Steel-making involves the use of substantial amounts of air, and that transfers the radioactivity to all steel. Radiation free metal is vital for use in instruments and equipment used for measuring radiation, for fine sensors used in space satellites, and in some medical equipment.”

The lasting effects of those bombs have been forgotten by many today, but this week during a remembrance service in Hiroshima, the mayor noted that the effects of the atomic bombing on the minds of survivors had been underestimated for decades, adding that “the voices, faces and forms that vanished in the hell” had never left the hearts of survivors.

The damage of war reaches far beyond military actions. In our time, not only are those serving as combatants in the world’s battles in danger, but I came across an unbelievably startling statistic: that 95%-98% of all deaths and injuries in today’s wars come not to the military but to non-combatants, meaning those who suffer the greatest are children, women, and the elderly. In the long run, who are the true winners of wars?

May we discover the shalom of God’s peace.