Spoken Word

Little Boy

August 6, 1945

Sixty thousand people died

In the city of Hiroshima

It was 8:16 a.m. on a Monday

By 8:17 everyone at ground zero had nothing left to say

Their skin and bones turn to ashes in an instant

But the U.S. was insistent on their revenge for Pearl Harbor

The Japanese didn't surrender unconditionally as we had recommended

So three days later we commanded their surrender with the loss of more lives

August 9, 1945

Seventy thousand more Japanese men, women, and children died

In the city of Nagasaki

Finally, the proud land of the sun surrendered

Because we had rendered them helpless

But of course, we were selfless in the treating of radiation poisoning

Even if we were to blame for the orphaning of thousands of children

Hundreds of Japanese survivors then asked 'Why Them?'

Why did they survive when everyone else in their family and neighborhood had died?

They lay in hospitals filled with the cries for mercy, for anyone to end their miserable lives

For days hundreds lay in the streets screaming in agony over their burnt flesh and lost limbs

And the thoughts of their sins that must have brought this upon them

Children screamed for their mothers that had been lost to the fires and the collapsing of their homes

Parents searched streets and hospitals trying to find their missing children

When all that was left of them was the ashes that the parents had slept on the night before

Despair and suicide claimed many more lives in the weeks, months, and years to come.

In Hiroshima alone, by the end of the bloody year of 1945, an estimated one hundred and forty thousand people died

The now concrete paths of Hondori once held Japanese charcoaled bodies

Castles and Gardens burned to cinders

Just because Japan would not surrender

But the spring of 1946 brought the bliss of a miracle

Life began to grow in the soil the scientists said wouldn't bear life for at least seventy five years

With plants brought the hope of rebuilding their homes and lives that they lost.

By the end of 1950, an estimated three hundred and forty thousand people were dead in both Hiroshima and Nagasaki

Today the cities are rebuilt and thriving

You can once again hear the birds sing instead of dying screams

Hiroshima Peace Park brings thousands of visitors to tears every year

And will forever stand as a memorial for the Japanese and Korean lives lost to the first atomic bomb in history in the heart of Hiroshima City.