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Fat Man
“I have become Death, the destroyer of worlds.”
--Robert Oppenheimer.
On August 9, 1945, a B-29 named Bock’s Car led
a bomber group over Japan. The Enola Gay flew
with them having dropped Little Boy on Hiroshima
three days before. Bock’s Car carried Fat Man, a
plutonium atomic bomb 40% more powerful than
Little Boy.
Their target was Kokura, but bad weather ruined
visibility. So it was on to the secondary target,
Nagasaki. At 11:02am, Fat Man was unleashed.
It detonated at 1,650 feet. Within a blast radius
of a square mile 40,000 people were vaporized.
Horrific burns and radiation poisoning would
later take the lives of 80,000 more.
In 1946, Kyoko stood amongst the blackened
forest of a city park. With tears in her eyes, and
radiation in her bones, she said,”What are the
roots that clutch, what branches grow out of this
stony rubble?”.
Glenn Buttkus
Prosery
Posted over at d'Verse Poet's Pub
Wow, a brutal and telling reminder of what Eliot was inferring with this line. Damn powerful.
ReplyDeleteWell written, Glenn. Something that too many people have forgotten about.
ReplyDeleteIn a weird bit of synchrony, I was thinking about Hiroshima when I wrote mine. Then just a little while ago I listened to this new podcast from the Dylan Thomas house, and one of the poets read his poem on Nagasaki.
A powerful and historical write, Glenn. We were in an air and space museum and viewed the actual Enola Gay. I thought that was somber enough. And then, on our trip to Japan and China two years ago, prior to Covid, we visited Hiroshima. Many people milling about, looking at the displays...you could hear a pin drop.
ReplyDeletePowerful write.
ReplyDeleteThanks for dropping by my blog
Much💜love
Wow, powerful application of the prompt!
ReplyDelete"In 1946, Kyoko stood amongst the blackened
ReplyDeleteforest of a city park. With tears in her eyes, and
radiation in her bones,"
Perfect lead-in to the prompt line, Glenn.
What a tragedy. The line packs a punch here, well done!
ReplyDeletePowerful and fascinating rolled into one!!
ReplyDeleteA sad story of the death and terror war brings. This is such a powerful story Glenn. The reality we would rather not have to acknowledge!
ReplyDeleteHorrifying to think of the loss of human life, being "vaporized", the pain and suffering speaks loudly through the narrative. The last paragraph is so powerful, sharing the lens with Kyoko, feeling the devastation and hopelessness where Eliot's line fit so perfectly. Thanks for joining in, Glenn.
ReplyDeleteHoly 5h17, Glenn. That was real.
ReplyDelete-David
The story of Nagasaki has been so ignored compared to Hiroshima, and I have read somewhere that Nagasaki had been mostly spared up to that point due to its large Christian population... bad weather indeed.
ReplyDelete