• 8.15 am 6 August 1945 atomic bombing
    foreignness,  human rights,  peace,  warfare

    Hiroshima

    An old eucalyptus tree grows in the ruins of Hiroshima Castle.  Although only 750 metres from ground zero when the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima at 8.15 am on 6 August 1945, the eucalyptus tree survived and still lives.  All around it for miles about was destroyed. Warfare has not been central to the discussion that has unfolded on this site, but it cannot be ignored.  It is only foreigners or rebels that we kill in war.  To label someone a foreigner is potentiality or in reality a licence to deprive them of life in “the national interest”.  Moreover the logic of war provides a licence to deprive our…