War And Peace

6 August 1945
Location: Hiroshima, Japan
The morning was clear and windless, almost completely calm. Just as any other ordinary day, twelve years old,  Aiko was getting ready for her school. She was busy combing her hair and from the mirror, she saw her mother.
"Mom, You're looking beautiful in this pink Kimono!" said Aiko.
"Today's our marriage anniversary, your father loves pink color," said Aiko's mother.
"Come on, Hurry up! It's 8:15 am you are getting late for school"
A brilliant flash of light followed by a loud booming sound destroyed nature's calmness. An atomic bomb was dropped by Americans on Hiroshima—  the city itself, was torn up in the blast, melted in the inferno of nuclear heat, and scattered. It was then mixed with the sand of the beaches.
The house window glass was broken, the roof tiles came out, everything was so intense! Aiko was shocked, scared, crying. The mirror glass broke into the skin on her hands, blood spilled out of her. Her mother holding Aiko's 2-month-old brother in one hand and Aiko's hand in the other hid under the table. Her Pink Kimono turned into a dark red one.
Since their house faced opposite the direction where the bomb dropped Aiko's family was safe but The explosion burnt their neighbors and killed an estimated 80,000 people.
After days of requesting his parents, Haruto was finally allowed to go on a school trip. The school trip was planned for 9th August. It was the meeting time at the school, and Haruto with his classmates was standing in the queue. The headmaster was counting the students.
Suddenly, a strong orangey flash, much lighter than summer sunshine, hit with a burst. They were not able to avoid it because they had no shade in their schoolyard. So they were directly burned. Then, the blast came. It blew them. Everything became muddled and chaotic. It was hard to breathe because there was too much dust. School children's screams could be heard everywhere, “It hurts!” "Mother" "It burns" "I am going to die". Everyone ran around in confusion.
When Haruto looked at himself and his classmates, they had all been badly burned and their clothes were shredded; they looked like “monsters". Haruto's right arm was severely burnt.  By the time doctors and his parents reached there, He faced tremendous pain.
Shitama, 22 year 22-year-old lady with a bag of fresh peaches returned from her friend's house to  Hiroshima. The Hiroshima train station was destroyed. The beautiful town where she spent her childhood in green grasslands, in the city crowded with markets, cafes, and restaurants turned into a single grey-black barren land with bodies unrecognized. She couldn't even trace her own house, no single person was alive or even a bird.
After 2 days of investigation, She found out that her whole family died in this tragic incident. She was bereaved.
9 August 2023
Location: Nagasaki, Japan
"Atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima by Americans" "killed millions" "plan to drop another bomb" "End of World War" radio says. Terror was spread everywhere after the news of the atomic bomb. No one left their houses.
Maria, a Japanese-American woman with her husband and their only 5-year-old son, Yamashita have been living on the outskirts of Nagasaki since the 1940s. Maria was shocked by the Hiroshima incident.
On the 9th of August morning around 11 am, Maria's husband was in his office building while she was preparing lunch outside the house. Yamashita playing around him said, "Mom, You make the world's best food!".
Suddenly, his eyes fell on a plane flying overhead and he informed Maria about it. Maria being cautious took his hand and brought it inside the house. As soon as they entered, an enormous explosion occurred so loud as thunderstorms. 'Fat Man' nuclear bomb was dropped in Nagasaki. Maria pushed his son to the ground and covered him with her body. After 10-15 minutes everything was silent. Everything around them was destroyed. She tried to contact her husband but there was no response.  "He died." Her neighbor informed her.
She couldn't control herself, she was shattered into pieces. For her son's life, she thought of moving to another city where her relatives stayed. She walked with his son, there were corpses everywhere. It was a horrific scene that was left in Yamashita's mind forever.
They reached their destination safely but Maria couldn't survive more than 10 days, She died due to the radiation exposure. Even living with his relatives, Yamashita was alone.
Taniguchi was 16 years old on August 9, 1945, the day the United States dropped an atomic bomb on Nagasaki. He was delivering mail on his bicycle in the city when the bomb hit. The blast threw him to the ground and stripped the skin from his back. He was in a hospital for more than three and a half years and initially died.
(Present day, Japan.)
Video stops.
"These are not just stories but the lives of the survivors of the atomic bombings in 1945. Thousands of people lost their lives or their friends, and family members. Nuclear weapons under, no circumstance should be used against humans."  Yamashita, now an anti-nuclear weapon activist to the audience who came to the National Peace Museum.
Someone from the crowd "Why don't you hate Americans? They killed your family."
"Peace will never flow from Hate! We want peace in this world not war. My mother was American-Japanese, and she was shocked by the bombings. Apart from this, the USA helped Japan in development"
Aiko now is successful in writing and selling her books on the lives of atomic bomb survivors. She with her grandchildren is also present there. Like her, many other survivors known as Hibakusha are promoting peace through their works.
"Even after 70 years of this incident, Survivors are still being treated in The Red Cross Hospital," says the doctor from Red Cross Hospital, Mr. Haruto who has his right arm burnt scar since the atomic bombing.
Shitama is in her old age sitting in her house watching Yamashita on Television. She remembers her memories with her family, and she cries. After their death, the initial stage of her life was really hard. She struggled even for one time with food. She even faced severe discrimination when it came to the prospects of marriage due to public ignorance about the consequences of radiation sickness. As industries were built, Japanese markets were expanded foreigners came to Japan for work, trade, and settlement. She found an opportunity to fill her stomach. She became a teacher in those years, She taught foreigners the Japanese language.
Now, She is also a member of Hibakusha(survival victim of atom bombings in Hiroshima and Nagasaki).
"Japan should be the first and last country to face nuclear weapons," says a survivor present in the meeting.
"It's the time to raise voices against the nuclear weapons" -Yamashita
"After struggling for 1 year, It is the biggest event for Hibakusha from different places who will be gathering together at the United Nations to discuss about nuclear bomb treaty." -Yamashita
Japanese who were once facing the worst years of their lives, now work together for a better nuclear-free future.

-Tanisha Sahu
Class 10 'B
Bal Bharati Public School, NTPC SIPAT
(**The characters' names may be fiction but their lives, locations, emotions, and feelings are real**)