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The remedy is now available to any nation for use
against any other
aggressor
nation. The question
remains: Who wi/1 be the first to use it?
by
Charles
F.
Vinson
W
ILLIAM
B. DOWNEY, Air
Force chaplain of the
509th Composite Group
based on the Pacific island ofTinian
during World War
11,
strode to the
podium in the briefing room. Before
him on that yet-dark August
6
morning 28 years ago were the as–
sembled crew members of the B-29
EnoJa Gay,
men specially trained
for this extremely important mis–
sion he was about to ask God to
bless.
"We pray thee," he said, "that the
end of the war may come soon and
that once more we may know peace
on earth. May the meo who fly this
night be kept safe in Thy care and
may they be returned safely to us.
We shall go forwa rd trusting in
Thee, knowing that we are in Thy
care now and forever. In the name
of Jesus Christ, Amen."
"What Has Caused This
Thing?"
Perhaps the meo of that mission
didn't really expect quite the answer
they got to that prayer. When the
atomic bomb was successfu lly
dropped on Hiroshima that clear,
bright morning at 8:15, 27-year-old
Captain Robert A. Lewis, copilot of
the
EnoJa Gay,
could only view the
mushroom cloud in amazement.
"My God, what have we done?" be
exclaimed in dismay.
Takako Okimoto, a second grader
in
Hiroshima in 1945, knew all too
well what had been done. "The 6th
of August," she later recounted,
"which 1 do not forget, the things
emedyfor
that happened that day are deeply
carved in my hear t. That cruel war
that snatched away so many pre–
cious human lives in one second -
even now 1 shudder when 1 think of
it.
I
am all alone after Josing my
father and mother and all my broth–
ers and sisters. And no one can take
their place. All of them,
as
a result
of that A-bomb, were struck down
one after another ....
"What has caused this thing?"
(Dr. Arata Osada,
Children of the A–
Bomb,
pp. 98-100.)
In the Name of Peace
At the time the bomb was
dropped, Dr. Luis W. Alvarez
thougbt he knew the answer to Ta–
kako Okimoto's agonized question.
As one of tbe scientific crewmem-
Don McCullin - Mognum