..September 2008 Nagasaki..
7AM walk before 2nd day of portraits
….500 feet above my head the 2nd atomic bomb detonated on August 9th, 1945. Blood, fire, black rain, and heat engulfed everywhere around me. For a split second the temperature at the epicenter reached 1 million degrees. 100 feet to my right corpses piled on the river creating a dam of death that stopped the flow of water. The Urakami Cathedral a 1/2 mile down the street collapsed and fell down a hillside. Part of the tower still sits at the bottom.
..2nd day in Nagasaki at the epicenter of the atomic bomb, I don’t think the entire story has ever been told or ever will be comprehended.
The reality hit me seeing the bell tower of the Urakami Cathedral at the bottom of the hill. It once towered on the top of the hill overlooking canal. Toppled like a home made of wooden blocks thrown across a room.
I took some rocks from the grounds of Urakami Church and wrote Love, Peace, Compassion. Took a bunch of rocks home with Japanese writing. An unlikely souvenir that I will always keep.
