Department of History had its assembly on 4th August, 2015 on Hiroshima day. Hiroshima Day is a day of remembrance, which commemorates the 6th of August 1945, the day, the first ever atomic bomb was dropped on the Japanese city of Hiroshima, followed a few days later by another dropped on the city of Nagasaki.
Between 60,000 and 80,000 people died instantly. Several more simply vanished in the heat of the explosion. Thousands were made homeless, and fled the flattened city. Of course, the Americans were compelled to justify this unjustifiable act of murder. Our assembly, thus, opened with the debate on the topic “The bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki by the USA is justified.” Parikshit Sen, spoke for the motion, followed by Sarthak Sethi, who spoke against it.
The assembly also reflected upon peaceful uses of Nuclear Energy. Production of electricity by the splitting of uranium atoms, usage of radioisotopes and radiation in agriculture and food preservation. Nuclear radioisotopes are used to detect tumours and nuclear radiology is especially used for treating cancer patients.
A skit on Japanese girl Sadako Sasaki who was two years old when the atomic bomb was dropped was also presented. Sadako is remembered through the story of a thousand origami cranes before her death, and is to this day a symbol of innocent victims of war.
Dhruv Mehta as Sutomo Yamaguchi addressed the assembly as a survivor of both the attacks. Meher Yadav recited the poem –A Blade of Grass by Japanese poet Takashi Tanemori.
The assembly concluded with the National Anthem.
