Shadows
Anniversary of the dropping of an Atomic Bomb on Hiroshima 1945
Nuclear Shadow Shadow – Shadow Project
There have been many discussions over whether it was justified and whether or not it actually saved lives. Of course the victors in the war, the Americans generally site the saving of many American lives by forcing the surrender of the Japanese government.
My point today is not to bring up the arguments, as they will do little to change the past, and I question their value for changing the future.
I have been to Hiroshima several times and have visited the memorial there. It is on the one hand a very peaceful park, of course filled with monuments and mementos both commemorating the lives lost and the wish for it to never happen again.
Yet, there is another side to the memorial and that is the stark displays of the effects on and sufferings of the common people. It is sobering and very emotional. For all of it’s starkness and honesty the intent though is not to make anyone feel guilty but to try to dissuade anyone ever again causing so much death and destruction. In one room of the museum there is a collection of letters that have been written by every Mayor of Hiroshima to every leader of a nuclear country imploring them to banish the military use of nuclear weapons.
Peace for the future lies at the heart of the displays.
Every year on the 6th of August there is an activity promoted as the Shadow Project. It is when chalk images of people are drawn on sidewalks and sides of buildings. These represent the nuclear blast shadows of people. In Hiroshima you can see these nuclear shadows from where someone was standing when the bomb went of and incinerated and vaporized that person. All that remains is the nuclear shadow.
Every year at the temple I take my chalk and draw outlines of people to remind us of the sorrows, hardship, and suffering caused by war. It is my fervent and lifelong wish that we fight no more wars!
Yesterday I talked about healing our vision. I think this act of seeing the good in everyone, looking deeply for the good even among the bad, this is where the beginning of the end of war is.
“The perverted people think: ‘This world is in a great fire. The end of the kalpa of destruction is coming.’ In reality this world of mine is peaceful. It is filled with gods and men.” (Lotus Sutra, Chapter XIV)
