Friday, December 24, 2004

at 01:55

little boy. fat man. enola gay. block's car. abel. baker. bikinis and more...
was watching discovery travel and adventure today and they were talking abt paradise on earth.. it was an interesting way they presented the show because they wld show the audience the place they considered paradise on earth, which was a beautiful place, really beautiful place. but then behind the beauty and serenity of those places, their history was one of horrors from ww2 and utter destruction.. i only tuned abt halfway thru the show so i only was able to catch 2 places... tinian and bikini atoll...

let's start with tinian... this was the place which was the historic launching pt of the 2 atomic bombs that destroyed hiroshima (uranium gun type) and nagasaki (plutonium implosion weapon) *but they are still considered atomic bombs yah?* respectively within the span of 3 days in august 1945 (6th and 9th of aug 1945)... of cos nagasaki wasn't the first choice for the 2nd bombing but then original place was kokura, which happened to be hazy.... which also happen to save that city from the effects of the atomic bomb. the 1st atomic bomb was code name little boy and was dropped by the enola gray, a b-29 plane nicknamed after the pilot's mother.. little boy nearly didn't make it for the bombing had it been schelduled for a day earlier because a few planes crashed soon after taking off. and the fat man was dropped by the b-29 plane nicknamed block's car. well there are 2 pits that were dug to accomodate the low slung b-29 planes. u can still see them on the island.. and the island itself BEAUTIFUL and ironically peaceful... like the past ghosts of ww2 have already been laid to rest.. and maybe they have.. but in another island elsewhere, these ghosts are still evident in the lives of the islanders.

did u know that the modern day bikinis that girls just SO LOVE wearing has a horrible past? i'm talking abt bikini atoll somewhere in micronesia and under the marshall something something group of islands. for something so pretty that girls will spend heaps of cash for that little bit of cloth... the household name sure is tied in to certain ugliness... apparently a french designer (obviously he's the one who designed this 'revolutionary' bathing suit) thot that bikini wld be an apt name for it. so bikini atoll, a picturesque, alluring and tranquil place which has 167 in habitants before being totally evacuated (after 2000 yrs of inhabiting the island) by the us forces for tests, which they were told was for the good of mankind. and being deeply religious pple, they felt that it was their duty to save mankind. well it true that the us were conducting tests but what the 167 inhabitants didn't know was that the us was going to sink all the huge warships, both us and japanese ones, that had become obsolete with the end of the war. for the next 12 yrs the us tested abt 2 dozen atomic bombs on that small helpless island as the previous inhabitants looked on helplessly. 2 of which are named abel and baker... if i remember correctly they were the first 2 to be fired by the us forces to sink the obsolete warships...
obviously the debris spread by the bombings were not taken into account by the us forces either that or THEY JUST DIDN'T GIVE A SHIT ABT THEM POOR INHABITANTS. these debris were carried much further away to the other islands in the micronesia area. the bikini inhabitants on the nearby islands were affected the most. many of them passed away from cancer; a result of the radioactivity from the atomic bombs. and they still continue to be affected by the radioactivity till today.
even tho the air and water in bikini atoll are not longer radioactive, the soil is still very much radioactive. hence the land can support no lifeform until the radioactivity has disappeared. despite this, the bikini inhabitants are still extremely hopeful in returning to their home island one day. and even tho they are born and raised in other islands, they still consider themselves bikinians... (heh is that even correct?) the docu showed shots of bikini atoll and i tell u.. it's so damm bloody beautiful.. u cannot believe that something so horrible has happened there and that the land is harmful. the empty houses and town serves as a reminder that there was once life in that island... and that life cannot be sustain on that island at the same time. (on a side note, that place make good dive sites.. or wreck dive sites...)

it really pained me to see how such beautiful islands hold such a horrible past. whie some recover, others will always bear the scars of the previous generation.. and will continue to be passed on future generations. while many of our grandparents and pple of their generation have suffered the pains and atrocities of war... the islands of micronesia, innocent bystanders of the pacific, also have suffered the horrors of ww2 and are continuing to suffer till today. far reaching and deep spreading are the effects of war... and i quote "where is the love....."

 

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