'River' of disarmament must never run dry

There is a poem that pierced my heart so deeply when I read it that I copied it down in my notebook. It goes: "Two flashes of light/ Probably still traveling through outer space/ Give me water."

The author is Kenichi Iwai, a poet born after World War II. According to Iwai, the two flashes of light refer to the atomic bombs that exploded over Hiroshima and Nagasaki on Aug. 6 and 9, respectively, in 1945.

"Give me water" were the words on the lips of countless people of Hiroshima and Nagasaki as they lay dying, tormented by raging thirst. Their moans of agony rose from the surface of the Earth, filled the air, and floated into the sky.

The flashes of light are still there even as we speak, as are the voices of the dying. They continue to travel through pitch-dark space. The poet's imaginative power forces the reader to confront the nuclear devastation of Hiroshima and Nagasaki as an "original sin" of the human race.

U.S. President Barack Obama, who is calling for a "world without nuclear weapons" through the elimination of those evil tools of destruction, has been chosen as the recipient of this year's Nobel Peace Prize. Before Obama, the last sitting head of state to receive this prize was the late South Korean President Kim Dae Jung, who was chosen in 2000 in recognition of his efforts to bring about reconciliation between the two Koreas.

Obama is being awarded the prize not for some specific achievement as such. But his speech in Prague in April, described by many as historic, became the source of the "river" of nuclear disarmament. The river is now growing wider, running over the U.N. Security Council, so to speak. As I understand it, the Norwegian Nobel Committee believes this river must not be allowed to dry up.

Kyoko Hayashi, a novelist and Nagasaki atomic bombing survivor, told The Asahi Shimbun this past summer: "I saw people die, disfigured beyond human shape and form. I could not accept that human beings could be so utterly dehumanized, and that became my starting point (as a writer)."

I hope Obama shares Hayashi's perception as the starting point of his crusade for a world without nuclear weapons.

A tanka poem by Haruka Tanimura goes: "The structure called the A-bomb Dome/ That survived the inferno/ Shows great many things/ That did not survive."

Obama is a wise person. I am sure he is bound to see all sorts of "truths" if he gets his chance to visit Hiroshima or Nagasaki or both.

--The Asahi Shimbun, Oct. 10(IHT/Asahi: October 19,2009)