Hiroshima Day Meditation / They come and stand at every door

Jacob Lawrence's Hiroshima Series

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Jacob Lawrence's Hiroshima Series was inspired by John Hershey's book titled Hiroshima:

"It was time for someone to describe the bomb in terms that the human mind could grasp. As Hersey finished The Bridge of San Luis Rey, he realized that emphasizing minutiae, not grandeur, was the way to drive the point home. Not everyone could comprehend how the atomic bomb worked or visualize an all-out, end-of-days nuclear world war. But practically anyone could comprehend a story about a handful of regular people — mothers, fathers, grade school children, doctors, clerks — going about their daily routines when catastrophe struck. Hersey would take readers into the victims’ kitchens, on their streetcar commutes, into their offices, back on that sunny summer morning of August 6, 1945, and show what befell them."

Koko Kondo speaks Wednesday [am's note:  That was August 6, 2020] in front of the Atomic Bomb Dome near the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum. (Eugene Hoshiko/AP)

“I’m so glad John Hersey wrote that book because that is what happened,” Kondo said in an interview.

But she also worries that it has been forgotten. One piece of evidence in favor of that conclusion is that nuclear weapons still exist.

I come and stand at every door
But no one hears my silent tread
I knock and yet remain unseen
For I am dead, for I am dead

I'm only seven although I died
In Hiroshima long ago
I'm seven now as I was then
When children die they do not grow

My hair was scorched by swirling flame
My eyes grew dim, my eyes grew blind
Death came and turned my bones to dust
And that was scattered by the wind

I need no fruit, I need no rice
I need no sweets nor even bread
I ask for nothing for myself
For I am dead, for I am dead

All that I ask is that for peace
You fight today, you fight today
So that the children of this world
May live and grow and laugh and play

(Nâzım Hikmet)

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".. the Second World War, it came to an end ..."

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Speaking with and without words, sending love near and far.

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ADDENDUM:  After posting this, I noticed that one of Jacob Lawrence's images in the HIroshima Series is called "Boy With Kite."  I hadn't noticed that when I chose the cover by Dave and Tyler who are identified as "A Boy and His Kite."  Take what you have gathered from coincidence.

DIEU A NOS COTES

(1/2 hour "contour" drawing, 6:00 to 6:30 a.m., from "paused" images from the DVD, "No Direction Home" -- 6B pencil on heavy weight, medium tooth surface, 9 x 12 Canson drawing pad, while listening to "Chants of India," by Ravi Shankar and George Harrison)

(Blog post written while listening to "Dieu A Nos Cotes (With God On Our Side), sung by Hart-Rouge, a Quebec ensemble who appeared on "A Nod to Bob." Listen to a clip here.

"Let's face it. America's a big country. And if you're French-Canadian, it's easy to see it as a big brewing pot melting minorities like butter. Dylan is one of those songwriters who has forced us to look again, to dig a little deeper and see a side of the States that challenges all the cultural and political bullying. Although 'God On Our Side' comes out of a specific time and place, it dares the listener to take the second look and view the world in a different way. We suspect that Hugues Aufray, who had a hit with the French version of this song (he actually recorded a dozen Dylan translations), probably chose it for the same reason."

-- Hart-Rouge

Oh my name it is nothin'
My age it means less
The country I come from
Is called the Midwest
I's taught and brought up there
The laws to abide
And that land that I live in
Has God on its side.

(from "With God On Our Side," Bob Dylan, 1963)