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Sunday, June 14, 2009

North Korea and A Tale of Two Cities

North Korea and A Tale of Two Cities

Text and photos by Armand Vaquer

Breitbart.com is reporting that North Korea is threatening to weaponize plutonium which brought an angry protest from Hiroshima, Japan's mayor:

The mayor of Hiroshima -- one of the two Japanese cities obliterated by US atom bombs during World War II -- on Sunday denounced North Korea for threatening to build more nuclear weapons, a report said.

"I am furious, with them (North Korea) for defying strong protests from the international community, including Hiroshima, the city attacked in an atomic bombing," mayor Tadatoshi Akiba said in a statement, as reported by Jiji Press.

Mayor Akiba's protest is very understandable and the Japanese are sensitive to the nuclear issue.

Five years ago this coming August, G-TOUR visited Hiroshima. While there, the G-tourists visited the Peace Memorial Park and Museum. At the museum, we saw artifacts of the destruction of the city by a U.S. atomic bomb in August 1945. The two atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki hastened the end of World War II.

In April 2007, I visited Nagasaki, the second Japanese city to be destroyed by an atomic bomb. Nagasaki also has a museum as well as a peace park. Additionally, Nagasaki has a park built at the hypocenter of the bomb blast.

This video, called "Tale of Two Cities" documents the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki:




Here, is a stark reminder of the power of the atomic bomb that was dropped over Hiroshima. This is the Atomic Dome, which is now part of Hiroshima's Peace Memorial Park.



Below, these dioramas from Hiroshima's Peace Museum shows the effects of the atom bomb on Hiroshima. They depict Hiroshima before and after the bombing.



Today, Nagasaki is a thriving city with virtually no evidence that it was obliterated by an atomic bomb in August 1945. The photo below was from my trip in April 2007.



Below, Hypocenter Park marks the point where the atomic bomb was detonated over Nagasaki.



The protest came after North Korea announced that it was going to build more nuclear bombs and to start enriching uranium for a new nuclear weapons program. This came after the UN Security Council called for tougher sanctions over North Korea's nuclear test.

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