JAPANESE NUKE EXPERIENCE

JAPANESE NUKE EXPERIENCE

BY DR. MERVYN ABREO

          Three war veterans sat on a bench and watched as the procession passed in front of them.

         The partakers carried banners and placards proclaiming that never again should mankind ever use nuclear weapons: it was the fiftieth anniversary of the atom bomb having been dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, in Japan, which resulted in the Second World War drawing to a close.

                                                             

          The three old men didn't know each other and had nothing in common except the fact that all three of them had fought in the Great War, and had been captured by the Japanese and kept as prisoners of war.

          Not a flicker of emotion had passed any of their countenances, until one of them spied the anti-nuke slogans plastered on the banners.

                                                                     

          A good ideology, he thought to himself, smiling: it was like all the grass eating animals in the jungle getting together and passing a resolution that henceforth no animal, including the lion, the tiger, the panther etc.’ will kill another animal, and all the animals will become vegetarians.

          All three of these war veterans had, while in captivity by the Japanese, been subjected to the most ruthless torture, and had lived, nay existed, under the most inhumane conditions.

                                                                   

       The deprivation and the torment that they had been subjected to, was unimaginable, so much so that it had left deep scars in the very depths of their souls.

          And as they sat watching the people pass by, their minds, even after all these years, reverted back to the horrors that they had each experienced.

          But surprisingly each responded in a totally different way:

          The hatred experienced by the first veteran towards the Japanese erupted in an unquenchable thirst for revenge. It was, all the more so, not only because of his in helplessness to act on his feelings, but due to his inability to influence others to think like him.

                                          

If his HATE could only be penned, it would go something like this:

I wish we had had more ammunition.

To destroy the entire Japanese nation.

For the nukes we dropped on those cities two,

Did little harm and killed so few!

The second veteran had long since given up. His feelings:

                                                

I cannot live, I will not die,

I live in pain, but will not cry.

But unlike me, the fish of the sea,

Will fight back with a tsunami.

The third veteran had given his life to Jesus! His feelings:

                                                     

Those horrible things you've done to me,

I have forgiven, and now I love thee.

And maybe as a result of these many a line,

We’ll soon break bread and drink some wine.

Please note that all poems are composed by author.

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Dear friend,

          I look forward to getting your feedback. Do write in to me at:

                                        drmervynabreo@gmail.com 

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