poem - August 6, 1945

Background…

During the final stages of World War II in 1945, the United States conducted two atomic bombings against the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan, the first on August 6, 1945 and the second on August 9, 1945. These two events are the only use of nuclear weapons in war to date.  For six months before the atomic bombings, the United States intensely fire-bombed 67 Japanese cities. Together with the United Kingdom and the Republic of China, the United States called for a surrender of Japan in the Potsdam Declaration on July 26, 1945. The Japanese government ignored this ultimatum. 

The Effects…

Within the first two to four months of the bombings, the acute effects killed 90,000–166,000 people in Hiroshima and 60,000–80,000 in Nagasaki, with roughly half of the deaths in each city occurring on the first day. 

'Later he will say that the whole blooming sky went up like an apricot ice. Later he will laugh and tremble at such a surrender, for the eye of his belly saw Marilyn’s skirts fly over her head for ever'

Simile –positive image contrasts with deadly bomb

Personifies the plane

Metaphor for the mushroom cloud

Contrasting words – range of emotions

'On the river bank, bees drizzle over hot white rhododendrons'

Contrast between innocence of nature and heat of explosion

Onomatopoeia to bring nature to life

Links to other poems…Violence / War: Invasion, Conscientious Objector, the Drum, O What is that Sound?, Belfast Confetti, Our Sharpeville, Hitcher, Exposure

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