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Lumot

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#happybirthday #nelsonmandela

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I have an affinity to ferns

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Gulos

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Liberate the minds of men and ultimately you will liberate the bodies of men.

Marcus Garvey (via kushandwizdom)

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Hiroshima bombing order offers glimpse into fateful day

BOSTON (AP) — It’s just a few cryptic notations on a badly yellowed sheet of paper, but it changed the course of world history.

An original copy of the operations order for dropping an atomic bomb on Hiroshima on Aug. 6, 1945, is on display at the Museum of World War II as the 70th anniversary of the attack is marked Thursday. It is being featured there along with other related artifacts.

The Hiroshima bombing and its aftermath ultimately claimed about 140,000 lives, helping to draw to a close the deadliest conflict in history and, for better or worse, usher in the atomic age.

“To me, it’s a glimpse into what went on that day,” says Kenneth Rendell, founder of the private museum located in the Boston suburb of Natick. “The average person does not realize what one of these missions would be like. I think it just humanizes everything.”

The simple, careworn document bears little indication of the importance of the mission. There’s no direct mention of the Enola Gay, the B-29 bomber that dropped the bomb, or of the infamous bomb itself, codenamed “Little Boy.”

Under a section meant to describe what types of bombs the plane would be carrying, the order bears just one word: “special.” The Enola Gay is listed only by its identification number, 82, and the last name of its pilot, Paul Tibbets.

The operations order is a basic sequence of events for crew members on the nine planes involved in the bombing, from when to attend prayer services, rise from bed, eat meals, attend briefings and finally take flight for Japan.

The museum, which Rendell established in 1999, also has a copy of a similarly nondescript order for the atomic bomb dropped on Nagasaki three days later on Aug. 9. That blast and its aftermath claimed another 80,000 lives, prompting Japan to surrender days later on Aug. 15.

Rendell, who has amassed a considerable trove of World War II related artifacts for his museum, says he purchased the operations orders over two decades ago from the family of Jacob Beser, a radar and electronics specialist who was the only man to have flown both bombing missions. Beser died in 1992.

Other items in the exhibit also were purchased from the family of crew members.

For example, there are some personal effects from Enola Gay’s navigator Theodore “Dutch” VanKirk, who was the last surviving member of the crew before he died last year at the age of 93. Among them are VanKirk’s headset, bible and navigator’s sextant, which he used to plot the course to Hiroshima.

There also is a handwritten missive that George Caron, the Enola Gay’s tail gunner, penned to his wife upon returning from the successful mission.

“It seems our crew and airplanes made history or something,” he writes. “When they let us write about it from here, I’ll be able to tell you all about it. Our picture will probably be all over the states before we can say anything.”

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AP PHOTOS: Hiroshima after the atomic bomb _ and today

HIROSHIMA, Japan (AP) — Last month, with a handful of black-and-white archival photos in hand, I set out with my camera to document how Hiroshima had changed, 70 years after the atomic bomb.

I grew up in Yokohama, and had never been to this western Japanese city before, though I had seen plenty of images on television.

My first impression was of a modern city on a steamy summer day. I imagined the same intense heat, even in the morning, had greeted people headed to work on the morning of Aug. 6, 1945. At 8:15 a.m., still 2,000 feet above the ground, the falling bomb detonated, forever changing their lives.

Some 90 percent of the city was destroyed, which is why it looks so new today. An estimated 140,000 people died in a city of 350,000, including those who succumbed to severe radiation exposure through the end of 1945.

The 1959 movie “Hiroshima Mon Amour” left a strong impression on me. The city as portrayed in the movie looked like any other, just 14 years after the devastation. I wondered how an outsider — a visiting French actress in 1959, or me today — could fully understand what had happened.

When I was traveling abroad 30 years ago, a man asked me a question: “Are there any trees, does grass grow in Hiroshima?”

I was shocked; I knew that trees and flowers grew the same as anywhere in the world.

The city I found was very much rebuilt and alive, with a population today of 1.2 million. The streetcars are packed again. The stark wasteland seen in the black-and-white photos taken soon after the bombing is but a memory.

The remains of one building stand on a river bank in the same place as 70 years ago. The Atomic Bomb Dome, now a U.N. World Heritage Site, has become the iconic image of Hiroshima.

It wasn’t as big as I had imagined. Then I thought, the building itself may be small, but its meaning is huge to all of us human beings.

A young couple passed by the dome, hand-in-hand. Before the atomic bomb, did many couples walk by like them?

___

Follow AP photographers and photo editors on Twitter: http://apne.ws/15Oo6jo

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Teach your children that the ground beneath their feet is the ashes of our grandfathers. So that they will respect the land, tell your children that the earth is rich with the lives of our kin. Teach your children what we have taught our children, that the earth is our mother. Whatever befalls the earth befalls the sons of the earth. If men spit upon the ground, they spit upon themselves.”

Chief Seattle 

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Tonite we gather our community n rally to join in a moment known as ONE MARIANAS. We are under a great threat against our home lands where the military once again is trying to forcefully occupy land for war/Bomb training. Recall the bombing in Hiroshima where the ABomb left the shores of tinian in the worst attack on part of our human family. We are NOT willing to participate in any more war games not are we willing to sacrifice our greatest resources to be used and exploited for purposes of war and violence, not on our land and not on the shores around us! All are welcome to join us in prayer and reverence. WE are the Caretakers of this paradise we call home. We must protect it for our future generations! Rise with us. #guardiansofgåni #ourislandsaresacred #weareguåhan #alternativezero #savelitekyan #savepågan #savetinian

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"Throughout history, it has been the inaction of those who could have acted; the indifference of those who should have known better; the silence of the voice of justice when it mattered most; that has made it possible for evil to triumph." - Haile Selassie I

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Protest signs on Camp Schwab in Okinawa.  (Photo from Stars and Stripes)