The New York Times has published two articles that chronicle and comment upon the destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan by atomic bombs dropped on those cities by the United States of America.
These two recent articles were published by The Times on August 6, 2025, exactly eighty years, to the day, after our nation's first atomic bomb fell on Hiroshima. Our second bomb was dropped on Nagasaki, Japan on August 9, 1945.
The image, above, has been gleaned from one of the two articles published by The Times, "Hiroshima and the End We Refuse to Imagine." The second article was titled, "Even Hiroshima’s Pacifist Cause Is Losing Believers."
That image that I have reproduced, as we can all immediately understand, is a picture of "a crushed box of cigarettes in Hiroshima, that reads 'Lucky Strike,' a brand name with a dreadful double meaning." Indeed, who got "lucky," and who didn't - or is there any lucky thing we can say about our atomic bomb attacks, and what has happened in all the years that have followed?
The basic message of the stories in The Times is that the nuclear proliferation that has occurred since 1945 has put the entire world in danger, and that it is certainly at least "possible," and some would say "probable," that the "end we refuse to imagine" will soon be upon us.
"Imagine" is an important word. John Lennon calls us to "Imagine" something revolutionary and new - a world without war, for instance - and Bob Dylan, in his song, "With God On Our Side," makes it explicit:
Now we got weapons
Of the chemical dust
If fire them we’re forced to
Then fire them we must
One push of the button
And a shot the world wide
And you never ask questions
When God’s on your side
Through many dark hour
I’ve been thinkin’ about this
That Jesus Christ
Was betrayed by a kiss
But I can’t think for you
You’ll have to decide
Whether Judas Iscariot
Had God on his side
So now as I’m leavin’
I’m weary as Hell
The confusion I’m feelin’
Ain’t no tongue can tell
The words fill my head
And fall to the floor
If God’s on our side
He’ll stop the next war
I, personally, think that we are going to have to "stop the next war" ourselves.
Are we ready? Then get set! Go!
Image Credit:
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2025/08/03/arts/hiroshima-anniversary.html
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