An atomic bomb was dropped on Nagasaki at 11:02am on August 9, 1945. Around 30,000 people were killed that day. About the same number died from radiation and other injuries in the following months.
Every year, Nagasaki remembers. People offer prayers for the dead on that day, at that time.
Two big camphor trees at the Sannou Shinto shrine were scorched and had their leaves and bark blown off in the explosion. But as time went by, new growth came, and now the trees are in full leaf again.
Neru's visit to the shrine formed the centre-piece of a half-hour Nagasaki TV show last Sunday. The show was called Kusunoki, or "camphor-tree."
Neru said her own grandmother had experienced the explosion, and told
her about it when she was little. Neru spoke about peace, and the way
it means different things to different people.
She said
she had made it her task to tell people in Tokyo and elsewhere about
what Nagasaki had suffered, and to speak out for peace.
The show also spoke with a number of young students and got their ideas about peace.
One
old man said that peace means treating other people and other countries
as friends, looking for friends instead of enemies. He said that it is
normal for people to have disagreements, but the main thing is to talk
about them, and not to fight.
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