Forgotten Legacy

I fear Americans have forgotten the true horrors of war.

Wilfred Burchett decided to strike out on his own. He was determined to see for himself what this nuclear bomb had done, to understand what this vaunted new weapon was all about. So he boarded a train and traveled for thirty hours to the city of Hiroshima in defiance of General MacArthur's orders.

Burchett emerged from the train into a nightmare world. The devastation that confronted him was unlike any he had ever seen during the war. The city of Hiroshima, with a population of 350,000, had been razed. Multistory buildings were reduced to charred posts. He saw people's shadows seared into walls and sidewalks. He met people with their skin melting off. In the hospital, he saw patients with purple skin hemorrhages, gangrene, fever, and rapid hair loss. Burchett was among the first to witness and describe radiation sickness.
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We would do well to remember the consequences of all of this American saber-rattling, especially now that Bush's ire is now directed at Iran. Stories like this are especially important with the continued extensive military blackouts of news and the corporate media's complacency. Censorship has always gone hand in hand with the military but it seems so much worse right now.