Sixty-seven years ago today a United States Army Airforce B-29
called the Enola Gay dropped an atomic bomb its makers’ quaintly
named “Little Boy” on the Japanese city of Hiroshima. Between
90,000 and 140,000 mostly civilians died as a result of this
devastating attack. In 1962 the American Trappist monk Thomas
Merton wrote a letter to the Hon. Shinzo Hamai who was the Mayor
of Hiroshima. In his letter, Merton wrote, It is my conviction
that the people of Hiroshima stand today as a symbol of the
hopes of humanity. It is good that such a symbol should exist.
The events of August 6, 1945, give you the most solemn right to
be heard and respected by the whole world. But the world only
pretends to respect your witness. In reality it cannot face the
truth which you represent. But I wish to say on my own behalf
and on behalf of my fellow monks and those who are like-minded,
that I never cease to face the truth which is symbolized in the
names Hiroshima, Nagasaki. (The Hidden Ground of Love, 380,381)
Merton did not d