Remembering Hiroshima and Nagasaki
Last Monday, I wrote an article titled “What being an inch too short can do for you.” That piece was really the story of my maternal grandfather, Capt. Valeriano J. Segura, who was supposed to be the first Filipino West Point graduate but was, unfortunately, an inch short of the West Point Academy’s regulation height. I wrote that the guy second to him was Col. Jesus Villamor, whom the Villamor Airbase was named after. But when my cousins read my article, they reminded me that it was BGeneral Vicente Lim who was second to my grandfather and became the first Filipino to graduate from West Point Academy.
I’m writing this piece to rectify my error. After all, the information that my folks gave me was at least 50 years old. So I checked Wikipedia and I’m glad I’m writing this piece to write the wrongs I made. Gen. Lim was truly a hero of Bataan, but somehow he was captured when he was to report to Australia. He was eventually executed in Manila and buried in a mass grave – a true Filipino patriot who died for the love of his country. Like my grandpa, Gen. Lim was also recognized for being one of the charter members of the Boy Scouts of the Philippines.
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Last Aug. 6 was the 74th year anniversary of the fateful dropping of the first nuclear bomb dubbed as “Little Boy” by the B-29 Super Fortress, the “Enola Gay.” It was dropped in the city of Hiroshima, killing more than a hundred thousand Japanese people. Little did anyone realize that the fallout of the nuclear bomb would create many other casualties long after the bomb had exploded. It was on Aug. 7 and 8 when the first group of rescuers entered Hiroshima to realize that this bombing was totally different from other US bombing raids of Japanese cities.
Then on Aug. 9, 1945, the B-29 Super Fortress named “Bockscar” carrying the second atomic bomb on its hold, dubbed “Fat Man,” was dropped on the city of Nagasaki. Nagasaki was the second target because its priority target the city of Kokura was hidden by clouds. Thus, the bomb killed a hundred thousand people in Nagasaki and destroyed the Nagasaki Cathedral, which was a Catholic church.
I visited Hiroshima seven years ago and have visited Nagasaki twice, and these two cities have been rebuilt through the years. The only remaining structures were the preservation of the Genbaku Dome, which was target zero of the nuclear bomb. Of course, it is best to visit the Hiroshima Atomic museum so you can see the effects of the nuclear bomb, like the preservation of a wall that contained what looked like shadows of people, but, in truth, are remnants of people’s ashes imprinted on the wall due to the extreme heat produced by the bomb.
With many Filipinos visiting Japan these days, I would urge them to visit Hiroshima or Nagasaki. I especially loved Nagasaki because it is Japan’s most Catholic city. There you will also see in their museum how Christians were repressed by the Japanese Shogun Toyotomi Hideyoshi. On top of the Nishizaka Hill, you will see the memorial of 26 Christian martyrs who were executed on February 5, 1597 in the most brutal type of execution, where they were hung on crosses and two spears plunged like an X on their bodies. You will also see the statue of San Lorenzo Ruiz who was martyred in the city.
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A few days ago, I watched The FREEMAN’s drone photo of the back portion of a building at the corner of Gorordo Ave. and Escario St. where a condominium construction was underway beside it. As the story went, the building apparently collapsed due to a weakened and softened ground. So the attention of the Office of the Building Official (OBO) was asked to look into this incident where a cease and desist order was issued against the building.
But if you really look at the Juanita Building, almost all of its tenants have moved out simply because, I would like to believe, the property would be used to construct another building. So in the end, the collapsed back end of that building was due to the building being slowly destroyed in order to make way for the new building. I hope our readers would now know what really happened to this building. The proposed project is that of Vista Suarez Cebu Condo/Vista Residence.
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