One Big Tree

    One morning, with a big noise, the city of Hiroshima was burnt red and it became dark.  No one knew what happened because it happened in an instance.

    But there were crying people and shouting people.  I had never seen such a horrible scene before then.  I leaned over a tree.  The other trees were all burnt out, but this tree was left.  A mother was giving milk to her baby.  The baby was weak and so was the mother.  She couldn’t give her baby enough milk.  The baby hung down its head.  The mother could do nothing but cry. 

    I felt very deeply how horrible and sad war is when I saw this scene.  I didn’t want anything like this happen again.  I will keep on praying.

 

                                                       My Watch

It was 8:15 a.m. on August 6^th, 1945.　

My watch stopped on that time and that day.

I had a dream.

But I cannot make the dream come true anymore.

This is because my watch has stopped.

Not only mine but also many others’ have stopped.

How many people had their watch stopped since then?
Each of them must have had their own dreams.

They must have had their own family.

 

Sadness.　Hatred.　Pain.
These are not the things people need to live on.
Why do people wage war which produces only such things?
We all should know this, shouldn’t we?
Now at this very moment, someone's watch is stopping.
War is going on somewhere.

 

 

 

 

Real Peace

Why did we wage such a thing as war?  War involves people who did nothing wrong.　Didn’t people think that it is so horrible?  Some people say war is for the country, but actually it is for their benefit, to satisfy their greed.  If people protest, they kill the protesters.  Didn’t people think that it is crazy? 

People could not protest because if they had protested, their children, lovers, and husbands would have been arrested.  They might not be able to see them again.  They would miss them, but they could not say, “Please don’t go.”  All they could do was see them off, saying she or he had to work for their country.  

 

Soldiers knew they would be killed in war but they had to go.  They had to hide how sad they were.  They couldn’t say that they didn’t want to go to war.  It is crazy.  Everyone was crazy.  In fact, the world is crazy still now.  It seems peaceful, but it is not peaceful.  It might be more peaceful than what it was long ago.  But is it really peaceful?  Actually, something is always going on where we don’t know about it; bullying, murder, earthquakes….  Many things are going on.

 

When will the world be peaceful in the real sense?  Today?  Tomorrow?  In two years?  In ten years?  In 100 years? Or….  No, the world won’t be really peaceful unless we, human beings, change.

 

Sisters

 

    On August 6^th, 1945, an atomic bomb was dropped over Hiroshima.  A lot of people were killed.  There were two sisters among them.  The elder sister was sick.  The younger sister was always playing by herself. 

But because the elder sister was getting better and better these days, they were going to play together.  It had been a long time since they had last played together.  The younger sister was very glad to hear that they would be able to play together again.  They talked about what to play the next day.  Just talking about it was so much fun for them. 

The next day, the atomic bomb was dropped.  Two sisters went to heaven together hand in hand.  They have lived happy lives there since then.

 

 

One Day

    One day, a city disappeared with a big noise. 

    Everything disappeared, including the people who were with me before, the chattering voices, and the lights of the city.  The voices became cries.  Then the cries became groans.  Everyone’s lives were suddenly destroyed.  Many people were suffering from terrible pain all over their bodies.  Both their bodies and hearts were damaged horribly.  There wasn’t enough food.

 

    People tried hard to survive.  It was hard for them to talk about the horrible experiences, but they made a great effort to tell the next generation about it.  They said that no one must experience such things again, that peace is really important, and that we need peace for everyone to live happily

 

 

 

My Idea about War

    When my grandmother and grandfather were younger than I am, atomic bombs were dropped over Hiroshima and Nagasaki.  My grandfather told me that the ground under the epicenter in Hiroshima became a very big dent.  He said it showed how powerful the bomb was.  A lot of people were killed.  Survivors had a hard time finding food, clothing and shelter.  Most of the people were about to give up hope.

    My country seems to be more peaceful now because we renounced war after the World War II.  But there are still many countries which wage war one after another.

 

    Why do people in the world wage war?  A lot of citizens are sacrificed in war.  If things go badly, we might be ruled by other countries and experience terrible things more than just insulting ones.  My answer is this: war is a chance for people in the upper class to earn money.  If they can win a war, they can get a huge amount of profit.  They might be able to control a country.  If they can get a lot of money, they think their country can become stronger than other countries, and so can look down on them.

 

They would be very happy about such an outcome.  If this happens, ordinary citizens are killed and made to lose hope just because of such selfish reason.

    “You can profit and live a better life than other citizens by causing war” means that someone will surely be killed in war.

    I think ordinary citizens would choose “precious lives” rather than “profit.”  If we win a war, we might able to live better lives.

 

But it means the people in the country which lost the war will live worse lives.  We sacrifice their lives for us to be happy.  To be honest with you, I cannot be happy at all in such a “happy” better life.

    I think my country got the real happiness of “peace” instead of a false happiness after we renounced war

I think it was the right choice to renounce war.  I think we can live ordinary lives in this way because our country renounced war.  I am proud of my country.

 

 

Thank You

 

Thank you for the happiness that we take for granted in our everyday lives.

We can go to school now.

But few children could go to school long ago in our county.

They wanted to go, but they couldn’t.

Most of them didn’t have enough money.

Children had to work all the time from morning till night.

 

Now we can go to school.

We can meet our best friends there.

If I hadn’t come to school, I couldn’t have met them.

Thinking this way, I feel very happy to come to school.

 

It seems natural, but thank you for this happiness.

 

 

War

I am against war.

This is because a lot of people are sacrificed. 

Another reason is that my friends and relatives, who are important for me were killed in war.

I want to tell how horrible war is to younger generation in order not to repeat war again.

I think we must not wage war no matter what problems we have.

　

 

Brothers’ Bond

 

    Two brothers were playing as usual one day.  They always got along well with each other.  The big sky and the scenery of Hiroshima City were just the same as usual.  It was their hometown.

    The brothers were famous for their good relationship.

    One day, the younger brother became sick.  He could seldom play outside of his house.  He read books at home.  The older brother told interesting stories about their school to encourage him.  The younger brother liked listening to him very much.

 

    On August 6^th, the big sky and the scenery of the city looked the same as usual.  The younger brother said to his older brother, “Are you going to school soon?”  The older brother said, “Yes, I’ll be back soon and I’ll tell you more interesting stories.”  The younger brother looked very happy to hear that.  Looking at his smile, he felt cheerful and went to school. 

    The older brother saw an airplane on the way to school.  At the moment, something flashed.  A moment later, he heard “Bang, ” a big noise.  He lost his consciousness.  But he came to after a while.

    Then there was no Hiroshima he had known.  He was scared and couldn’t stop shaking.  He remembered his brother’s face.  He hurried to his house.

    His house was not crushed, but damaged terribly.  His younger brother was burnt all over his body.  The older brother wanted to take him to a hospital, he looked for a hospital but could not find any.  He was too tired to run or walk.

 

    Then the younger brother said, “I might die.  I am sorry.”  The older brother said, ”Don’t die!” But he was dying.

    The older brother told him interesting stories about school again.  The younger brother said in a feeble voice, “You didn’t forget your promise, did you?  Thank you.”  He was crying.  The older brother was shedding tears and said, “Of course not.”  But the younger brother was already dead.  All the older brother could do was cry over his death.

 

 

Nuclear Weapons

 

    When I watched TV programs about what happened in Hiroshima on August 6^th in 1945 and listened to atomic bomb survivors, I felt my heart ache very much.

    People say it is peaceful in Japan now because we don’t have war, but I don’t think so.  The reason is that there are nuclear weapons somewhere in the world now though it seems natural that we can live peacefully without war.  I cannot say that we are in peace until all the nuclear weapons are abolished.

    I cannot tolerate a small nuclear weapon killing tens of thousands of people.  I hope there will one day be no nuclear weapons in the world and we can live in real peace.

 

 

Before an Atomic Bomb Was Dropped

 

    I was pulling a trolley filled with bank documents with my female colleague to a storehouse in Honmachi.  It was a preparative measure to protect them from air-raids.

    We came to a police station near a bridge next to the intersection.  Then we saw airplanes flying high in the sky toward us.  We thought they were the airplanes of our air force so we waved our hands to them.  Then a policeman from the station shouted, “Run to an air-raid shelter!  Didn’t you hear the air-raid alarm?”

 

     I was too scared to move.  I had seen bombs dropped over the city at night.  I had seen airplanes on fire falling down.

     People hadn’t seriously thought of the damage of air-raids in those days till then.  Even after they heard the siren of the air-raid alarm and the sound of the explosion of bombs, many people came out onto the streets and watched what was happening.  Antiaircraft guns were shooting at the airplanes and the shootings looked like fireworks.

 

 

 

 

 

Hearts to Thank Everything

There is nothing good in war.

When there was war, we didn’t have enough food.

We were not wealthy like we are now.

So let’s thank the present moment.

Let’s think of the happiness of what we can do now.

We have food, clothing, and shelter.

Let’s thank what we can do.

Let’s thank our fathers and mothers.

Let’s spend every day with thanks.

 

 

A Safe Apple?

    One day, a boy found a red apple on a bench in a park.  He was very hungry so he ate it.  Then he suddenly crouched down there.  He didn’t move at all and fell asleep deeply.

    It was later found out that a child of a rich family had taken the apple out from a garbage bin and had put it on the bench.

    It seems that there are many other things we cannot judge whether it is safe or not just by their appearances.

   

 

Fire of an Oath Craving Peace

Atsushi

    A soldier was born and brought up in Hoshino Village, Fukuoka Prefecture.  His name was Mr. Yamamoto.

    He took a train to join the main unit in Ujina in the vicinity of Hiroshima on August 6^th, 1945.  At 8:15, sudden white light filled the train.  It was a single moment when the atomic bomb was dropped in Hiroshima.  The city turned into Hell.

    He was anxious about his uncle, who raised him in place of his father.  But the soldiers undertook difficult work in collecting corpses and burning them the next day.

    Half a month after the bomb was dropped, he went to confirm his uncle’s safety and he found the ember of the atomic bomb.  He took the fire home in his hometown and kept it with fury and hatred until the fire that deprived people’s lives became an oath craving peace through years.

 

 

 

 

How Precious Lives Are

Nami

        Do you know what happened on August 6^th sixty years ago?  It was the day when an atomic bomb was dropped in Hiroshima.  It became an event we can’t forget throughout our lives.

    There was a young girl.  The girl couldn’t go to school and didn’t have any friends, either.  All she did was help with housework.  Only the girl’s elder brother often played with her.  They couldn’t get enough nutrition and they became thin.  In the war, they tried desperately to live. 

    However, the atomic bomb was dropped in Hiroshima in the morning of August 6^th.  It deprived them of their lives in an instant. 

 Many people lost their lives because of the atomic bomb.  Without the bomb, they could have had a lot of experience in their future.  But once we lose our lives, we will never be able to return.  Every life is so precious.  We should appreciate our lives.

 

 

 

A Girl in Hiroshima

Kengo

    There lived a family of five people in Hiroshima in 1945.  On August 6, when the atomic bomb was dropped there, four of them were burnt to death.

    Only a girl survived.  But she was not able to accept the facts of what happened.  Even after days and months passed, she remembered her parents and her sister all the time.

    One day, when she went out by bicycle, she met a former classmate in her elementary school.  They went to the center of Hiroshima together, and they remembered the people who passed away.

    Then they accepted the reality and they gazed at what the atomic bomb brought.  After a while, they felt the preciousness of peace and joy of living.

 

 

 

 

Human Beings Are Cruel

Shouhei

    It was in 1945.  Many people were killed by atomic bombs in Hiroshima and Nagasaki.  On the other hand, an open execution was going to start at a certain place.  It was an execution to kill a human being.

    His name was Hajime.  He was a Japanese.  He was going to be killed for a false crime.  The place of the execution was near the place where the atomic bomb was dropped. 

He did not know why he was there and why he was going to be killed.  He didn’t understand the situation, but he could understand only this: Human beings are very cruel….

    Human beings are very cruel….

 

 

 

 

 

 

A House for Children

Ayumi

 

    Many children lived in a house long ago.  The children were various ages.  The colors of their skin were white, black, yellow, and so on. 

Some children shared one room.  They often fought in their rooms.  And the leaders in each room started fights with other leaders.  Then most children in the house separated into two groups and started a big fight.  It continued for four years or more, and a lot of children were wounded or killed in the fight.

One day a boy named Wilhelm quitted being a leader and the fight ended.  His room lost its leader, so children in the room felt very helpless.  Then a boy named Adolf showed up as a new leader, and he began to lead everyone in the room.  Children in the room could get a lot of cakes and toys thanks to Adolf.  However, Adolf bullied children who moved from a different room to his room and confined them in closets.

Children in other rooms took other children’s rooms and often started fights in the house.  The fights became bigger than the last ones because Adolf and other children in his room tried to take over all the other rooms.

One winter day, when two years passed after the fight started, Hideki and some children attacked children in Franklin’s room while everyone was sleeping at night.  The fight became crueler and a lot more children were hurt.  The fight continued for four years. 

Adolf resigned as a leader and his room stopped fighting.  The children in Hideki’s room were still fighting against children in Franklin’s room.  Franklin destroyed Hideki’s room with bombs.  At that time, a lot of children in Hideki’s room were killed.  Because Hideki’s room was broken, Hideki and the children in his room stopped fighting.  Then everyone stopped fighting because the enemies were gone.

In this way, the children’s house became peaceful.  But even now, they fight and quarrel about small things among a lot of rooms.