[Extra Edition 12: Fragments of Light: Prayer Droplets] "Beyond the Sky of That Prayer" — Carrying Prayers for Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Words —

—


"I feel like I know about the atomic bomb, yet I still don't really know."
But, even so—I want to pray.
Because to pray is not about knowledge or stance, but about standing by someone with your heart.



Praying does not ask for knowledge or position.

As one person from the only country to have had atomic bombs dropped on it.
And as one who weaves healing.

Conflict steals more than just lives.
It steals livelihoods, memories, dreams, and the future.

With these words, I want to protect someone's light.
That is why I pray again this year.

Searching for what I can do now, under the sky of that summer.

That day is coming again.

That scene is not a distant past—
It continues to live within us even now.

August. Under the sky of this country where the sound of cicadas echoes,
we welcome "that day" every year.

For a generation that does not know war to pray,
it is simply a wish that the tragedy will not be repeated.
And, to imagine.

The scorched streets, the voices crying out.
The voice of that person who, crawling through the scorched earth, whispered, "Water..."

I feel like it reaches me.
I feel like a voice that shouldn't be audible is soaking into my heart.

That will surely remain within me as a "light."

And so, I pray again this year.
Between the past and the future.

Since I was in junior high school, whenever the news covered the days the atomic bombs were dropped on Nagasaki and Hiroshima... yes, August 6, 1945, the day the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima, and then days later, August 9 of the same year, the day the atomic bomb was dropped on Nagasaki, and the Peace Memorial Park, I would think this.

Why did only Japan have to go through such a terrible experience...?

The content we studied in class only showed a small fraction of the photos from Hiroshima and Nagasaki where the bombs were actually dropped, and I only thought, "So that's what happened..." That is the same for me and all of you who do not know war; since we didn't live through that time and didn't hear about the tragedy directly from relatives, it was just a detached impression.

It must be even more so for the rest of the world. You cannot understand just by hearing about it. That devastation is different from the tragedies that occur in war.
Only recently have I been able to learn about what happened at that time through news footage or special programs. Scenes that make you want to cover your eyes spread out... it's not even comparable to a missile strike.

After the atomic bomb fell, following a moment of silence, a ripple-like blast at Mach speed spread out, buildings were scorched, and everyone died in an instant. If you were caught in the blast halfway, what awaited you was a living hell. The victims must have thought,
"Why me?" "Why did I have to go through this living hell?" "Put me out of my misery, who on earth did this?"
"Amidst the pain and suffering, the voice that squeezed out 'Please, water,'"
"I feel like it still echoes deep in my chest even now."
............

The descendants who have heard about it continuously from family members who were exposed to the radiation must have felt resentment at first. Why did my grandfather, my grandmother have to endure such suffering?

But the people of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, rather than endlessly expressing resentment, have continued to wish for peace and for this tragedy never to happen again. Even now, and continuing to entrust it to the future. We must not cause war, and nuclear weapons are out of the question. It is strange that the world thinks peace cannot be maintained unless nations threaten each other because they possess nuclear weapons; why can't they understand even that?

That day is coming again.
However, we will not forget it.
Every time it comes, we believe in peace and will live with the prayers passed down from our predecessors in our hearts.

And again this year—
Beyond the clouds,
may the "light called peace" reach.


—Shoun

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