"Ten thousand children played in the playground"

[Minstrel Boy]

A good day to hear this song.

Hiroshima
by David Rovics

(Available for free download here, along with the rest of his work: http://www.soundclick.com/pro/?BandID=111310)

Ten thousand children played in the playground
Swinging on the swings, didn't hear the sound
Of the single plane that flew overhead
The third shift workers were just going to bed
There was a flash of light and a rumbling noise
And gone in a instant, parents, girls and boys

Ten thousand mothers were boiling rice
A thousand prisoners of war were rolling their dice
Hoping they'd survive this terrible storm
When each young man in his uniform
Vanished in the air in the blink of an eye
One moment they lived, the next they all died
Hiroshima, Hiroshima

Ten thousand chickens were sitting on eggs
Beaks in their wings, resting their legs
Ten thousand farmers were looking at their fields
Planning the harvest, guessing at yields
Dreaming of life after the war
The next second they weren't living no more
Hiroshima, Hiroshima

Ten thousand lovers made lover to each other
Each one of them thinking there might not be another
Living so long with death everywhere
Much more than one person alone can bear
But there wasn't time for a final kiss
Who could've known it would end like this
Hiroshima, Hiroshima

A hundred thousand people were living their lives
Grandparents, children, fathers and wives
Now they're just shadows on the street
In such a quick burst of incredible heat
Now listen to them talk about doing it again
From whence came the souls of these terrible men
Hiroshima, Hiroshima

[GiovanniC]

1. Wow

That's pretty powerful.

[qwertyMike]

2. Yes, August 6, 1945

I was born exactly 30 days before this horror. July 7.

[bobbieinok]

3. anyone ever see the French film of the 50s ' Hiroshima mon amour'??

[Minstrel Boy]

5. long ago

Time to see it again.

[Minstrel Boy]

4. "one American face"

Photo of American victim of Hiroshima bomb now included in memorial display

HIROSHIMA, Japan -- Near where the atomic bomb detonated over Hiroshima, the faces of the victims silently appear and fade on a wall of television monitors in a relentless display of the attack’s terrifying human toll.

Amid the thousands of faces, one stands apart: that of Cpl. John Long Jr., U.S. Army Air Force.

...

The names of seven American POWs have been added since the 1970s to an official book of victims updated annually by the city, but the list is encased in a stone cenotaph and is not visible to the public.

...

"I think most Americans would look at all those Japanese faces and say, ’That’s too bad. A lot of Japanese people died.’ But you get one American face and they might feel a little more of a connection," said Long, who grew up in Japan and works in Tokyo as a teacher.
http://www.detnews.com/2004/nation/0402/15/nation-63775.htm

[seemslikeadream]

6. A People's Record of Hiroshima

Fifty-eight years ago, on August 6, 1945, a single atomic bomb dropped by the United States utterly destroyed the city of Hiroshima. Hundreds of thousands of residents died.


The city was a sea of flame. The people fleeing out of it were burned too badly to be recognized even as men or women.
Drawing / Terumasa Hirata
Around 8:45 a.m., August 6, 1945
Approx. 2,200m from the hypocenter
Ushita-machi (now, Ushita-minami 1-chome)

Mothers moved among the wounded mobilized students who had been laid out. When one found her child, she would burst into tears and embrace her or him.
Drawing / Anonymous
August 7, 1945
Approx. 1,700m from the hypocenter

A man complained that his head was so itchy he couldn't sleep. When the swollen wound was opened with pincettes, dozens, hundreds of maggots dropped out. Drawing / Kyoko Masaki
Around August 8, 1945
Approx. 30km from the hypocenter
Otake-cho, Saeki-gun (now, Otake City

Outside Yokogawa Station, Yokogawa-cho 3-chome

Cremating on the riverbank bodies gathered in trucks
Drawing / Shigeo Fujii
August 17, 1945
Approx. 2,000m from the hypocenter
Fukushima-cho

http://www.pcf.city.hiroshima.jp/virtual/VirtualMuseum_...


Thanks for remembering Minstrel-san

[Minstrel Boy]

7. wow... "never again" seems appropriate right about now

[Walt Starr]

8. I'm sorry, but this is one issue I feel no symnpathy for

I believe it was 100% justified. I do jnot feel sorry for the victims of the bomb. We were in a real war and this is what happens in a real war.

[JustJersey]

9. I agree

Walt, I agree with you. The japanese people blindly followed their leaders into a war, not just against the U.S., but against China, Korea, Manchuria and a host of other smaller neighboring countries. Their barbarism knew no bounds. Our experience leading up to August, 1945, particularly on Iwo Jima, showed that any invasion of Japan would be bloody and long.

I might start honoring the "victims" of the bombs when Japan starts honoring the vicitims of Pearl Harbor, Manila, Bataan, Burma, NanKing, Manchuria.....

[Walt Starr]

11. I believe it is important to note, this is what happens to people who

allow their government to beomce imperialist conquerors.

think about that, DUers, when you look at what Bushco has been doing. His actions open you up to the sort of coutnerattack we had to resort to on Japan.

[Kitka]

17. Yeah, and if we got hit like that

because of Bush’s actions, it would really be the fault of my kids that a man I did not support fucked our country over. Uh, yeah.

[Rainbowreflect]

13. How do you know all the people that died, blindly followed

their leaders into was.
I sure as hell did not blindly follow bush into this was.
Do we all deserve to die a horrible death because of what our leaders are doing?

[Minstrel Boy]

10. Alright, how about some empathy then?

Or maybe a little respect for the dead?

[Walt Starr]

12. I respect the dead

and take this as a lesson as to what happens to a people who allow their government to become imperialist conquerors.

[Media_Lies_Daily]

15. Better start looking around, because that's what the NeoCons...

...have made us look like in the eyes of the world. How many Americans believe that the NeoCons are doing the right thing? 50%? 45%? 40% at the highest? Maybe less than 35%?

What percentage of the Japanese believed that the Japanese military was doing the right thing during WWII?

What percentage of Germans thought Hitler was doing the right thing?

What percentage of the people noted above "allowed" their governments "to become imperialist conquerors"? How many failed to even recognize what was happening until it was way too late to stop it?

[seemslikeadream]

16. How many Germans just watched the trains go by

[Kitka]

14. How fucking sick.

I vehemently disagree that bomb was justified, but even if one feels it is, it’s absolutely sick to say you feel no sympathy for its’ civilian victims. As if they had ANY say in the war. Fucking sick.

[lectrobyte]

18. Thanks. Todd Rundgren had a song called Hiroshima on one

his albums in the 1970's, too, very moving.

[seemslikeadream]

19. here it is Hiroshima

Hiroshima
Ra

Under the rising sun dirty yellow children play
And in the red pagoda mamasan is praying
Blood wasted saving face, ancestors are looking on
As they wave their silver samurai underneath the big gun
Hiroshima, no one could imagine
Not the victors nor the victims
Pitiful survivors nor the pawn of a man
who had the button under his hand
No one would believe it
God, God is on our side, he placed the power in our hands
To teach the yellow peril, this is Christian mercy
Harry, Harry give 'em hell, give 'em hell one more time again
We'll show those axis powers how to make an oven
Hiroshima, Nagasaki
Don't you ever forget, don't you ever fuckin' forget

This is the official voice of the United States of America addressing the
peoples of the islands of Japan. Tomorrow morning, on August 15th, 1945 at
exactly 8:15 am, we will bomb your cities of Nagasaki and Hiroshima with a
blast that will level these cities. This is the only alert you will receive.