Fast Draw – Remembering Hiroshima

Fast Draw – Remembering Hiroshima

אתר הנצחה בהירושימה (צילום: Dan Smith)

This post is also available in: heעברית (Hebrew)

By Arie Egozi, Hiroshima

Hiroshima memorial site (Photo: Dan Smith)
Hiroshima memorial site (Photo: Dan Smith)

Yesterday I stood a few hundred meters below the point where the Hiroshima atom bomb detonated, after being dropped on the city by an American plane in 1945.

The city itself was rebuilt. You have, of course, the building that withstood the blast despite being in the primary circle of destruction, you have all the rest of the memorial sites. Then you visit a museum and see what an atom bomb – a tiny one in today’s standards – can do.

In this place the nuclear threat faced by Israel takes on entirely different proportions. Here you realize what could happen if the ayatollahs in Tehran wouldn’t put a stop to their nuclear program, a program based on a primal hatred towards Israel.

Here, alongside the clean river and the memorial gardens, everything looks different. Here you realize that Israel has to do everything in its power to prevent Iran from acquiring its own nuclear weapon. Here you also realize that no one is going to do the job for us, not the Americans and certainly not the Europeans. Both powers have no idea what’s going on around them, and people who are detached from reality aren’t very good at playing saviors.

iHLS – Israel Homeland Security

When you stand directly below the point of the blast, and a few minutes later see all the direct and indirect damage it caused, you realize that Iran must never possess a military nuclear capability. The world was dazzled by the Iranian leaders’ smiles and the money is already flowing into the Islamic republic’s coffers. Israel’s security problems, apparently, aren’t of any real interest to the Americans and the Europeans.

We saw how they dealt with Syria’s continuing chemical weapons problem, and we can see how the world is dealing with the situation in Ukraine or even a rogue state like North Korea. Plenty of talks, pleasant discussions held in hotel rooms in Brussels and Washington. An ongoing theater show with none of the actors actually believing any of their lines.

So you have to stand in Hiroshima, beneath the point of the blast, to understand the threats we will face if the Ayatollahs aren’t stopped.

The sun rose over Hiroshima yesterday, but in the museum, faced with the horrors of the nuclear after-effects, every thought was shrouded in darkness.