Little boy on a big island

August 6 is remembered as Hiroshima Day. The destruction and killing that took place on that day in 1945 continue to haunt humankind. On this day let us pledge to maintain peace.

July 31, 2014 04:24 pm | Updated 04:24 pm IST

A mushroom cloud occurs when a large explosion of hot, low-density gases rise from the ground to produces a massive fireball. This fireball, which is hotter and denser than the surrounding air, creates a column of smoke and gases, and forms a mushroom-shaped cloud.

A mushroom cloud occurs when a large explosion of hot, low-density gases rise from the ground to produces a massive fireball. This fireball, which is hotter and denser than the surrounding air, creates a column of smoke and gases, and forms a mushroom-shaped cloud.

8.15 A.M. August 6, 2014

Anshuman stared at the brilliant blue sky above him, and mopped his forehead. At midday, the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park was scorching.

He gazed at the trees dotting the green lawns and the buildings in the distance. People were sightseeing; taking pictures. But there didn’t seem to be much to see.

Oh, it was pretty, all right. Peaceful, too. Who would have thought that the world’s first atomic bomb had been detonated here?

“Hello?”

Anshuman jumped. He’d wandered onto a lonely path. The wind rustled the trees; a few leaves wafted away in the breeze.

The voice came again. “Will you help me, please?”

This time, Anshuman peered into the green gloom. There stood a Japanese boy, wearing a blue shirt with a badge and loose trousers. His hair was cut close, and his dark eyes were pleading.

“Yes? What it is it?”

“My lunchbox is missing. Will you help me find it?”

“Um, okay. What does it look like?”

“It’s an ordinary tin one.”

Anshuman snorted. “Dude, I’m just here on a holiday with my parents, so I’ve no idea what Japanese lunchboxes look like. But I’ll help you.”

“Thank you,” the boy nodded. “It dropped somewhere here, but I cannot find it …” He looked around helplessly. “This place looks so different.”

“It does?” Anshuman raised his eyebrows. “Why? You’re from a school here, right?”

“The Second Hiroshima Prefectural Junior High School,” the boy said proudly, as they walked through the trees. “We were doing important work, making fire-breaks.”

Anshuman blinked. “Huh? Why?”

The boy stared at him. “To prevent fires. Very dangerous, especially during these terrible days. A lot of damage can be prevented by destroying fire hazards.”

“You’re weird.” Anshuman changed track. “So, what’s your name?”

“Shigeru,” the boy answered. “You are from foreign parts? Maybe that is why you do not know much about the war and the bomb.”

“I know a lot about the Second World War, dude,” Anshuman snapped as he searched the grassy ground for the lunchbox. “Hiroshima means ‘Wide Island’ in Japanese. The bomb used uranium and was called Little Boy; the plane that dropped it off was the Enola Gay and the pilot who flew it was Colonel Paul Tibbets. Did you know, even on the morning of August 6, 1945, the day the US dropped the bomb, no one was certain that Hiroshima would be the target? Eventually, this city was chosen because of the perfect weather conditions and it was visible from a high altitude.”

Destruction from the skies

“Yes, a perfect day,” Shigeru murmured. “The sky was blue, like today, and even the air-raid siren had declared that everything was safe — no one even suspected …”

Anshuman stared at him. “My god, was someone in your family here, on that day?”

Shigeru stared at the trees. “The first harvest had just been done. Those were such hard years and food was scarce. Everyone had to make do with daikon, sweet potatoes, hard soybeans, mixed rice with barley. And then, that morning … you know what happened?”

“The bomb exploded at 1,900 feet in mid-air, to cause maximum destruction,” Anshuman murmured. “A white-hot fireball flashed hotter than the surface of the sun. A blast wave rose and spread out at more than 700 miles per hour. It generated heat at twice the melting point of steel. The mushroom cloud was 10 miles high and spread three miles over the city. The blast wave flattened the city within 10 seconds. 70,000 people died instantly …”

“Did they tell you how loud the explosion was?” Shigeru murmured. “About the heat that ripped your skin from your body? That people walked like ghosts because everything was burning, burning and there was no water? Did they tell you about how the rivers were full of bodies because everyone just dropped like flies? That those within the blast radius were burnt to a crisp because of …”

“Stop!” Anshuman closed his eyes. “Don’t. Please…” When he opened his eyes again, Shigeru was gone.

Terror seized Anshuman. He shot out of the trees, and as people watched him in surprise, bolted into the Memorial Museum. Inside, he regained his breath and walked along the exhibits placed in commemoration of the Hiroshima tragedy.

He stopped. There was a glass case in front of him with something inside.

His heart began to race. Feeling dizzy, Anshuman bent forward to read the description.

This is Shigeru’s lunchbox. The contents were burned to coal, but according to Shigeru’s mother, Shigeko, his lunch on August 6 was a mixture of rice, barley, and soybeans, potato and daikon.

Shigeru Orimen was a first-year student at Second Hiroshima Prefectural Junior High School. He was exposed to the bomb at his building demolition work site at Nakajima-shin-machi. His mother searched for him desperately through the devastated city. Finally, early in the morning of August 9, she found a body with this lunch box clutched to the abdomen. Shigeru had worked diligently in place of his father and brother who were away at the front. He ploughed the field on the mountain and in a bamboo grove. His lunch that day was made from the first harvest from his new field.

True Story: Shigeru’s lunchbox is a real exhibit in the Peace Memorial Museum in Hiroshima, a moving testament to the lives lost on August 6, 1945 (Hiroshima Day), when the world’s first atomic bomb destroyed Hiroshima.

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