Remembering Hiroshima Through a Tree of Life

Hiroshima…

[image from The Telegraph]

August 6, 1945, 8:15AM

Remembering Hiroshima is a very painful thought but this lone tree have survived and was a witness to its horrors. The tree was believed to be around 390 years old since it has lived in 1765. It was raised and owned by  the family of Mr. Masaru Yamaki who have donated it to the National Arboretum in Washington DC despite some secrets it holds as per Mr. Yamaki. It has been speculated that it must  have been behind the wall of the bonsai nursery of the Yamaki family home when the US war planes dropped the atomic bomb some 2 miles away wiping out everything and anything in the area. Miraculously, the tree survived and witnessed the horrors of war: torn houses and structures and death everywhere. Wasting everything in the area including thousands and thousands of people.  The area became the scene of a horrific sight where people are walking with torn, burnt and mangled body parts from everywhere. 

Thus, it maybe the best way that Mr.Yamaki have donated it instead of keeping it as a prize for the meticulous, long time and hard way of nurturing the said tree however precious and priceless this tree of art has been. For him, maybe the tree is definitely not a prize to celebrate about and donated it instead of selling it at a very huge value. The tree's survival has the memory of more than hundred thousand people's horrific death. Even with the longevity on the life of this tree it simply cannot bring back the lives of those who died in the F bomb live again. Looking at it is very sad and traumatic and one cannot consume thinking its a tree of life tainted with blood and horrors. If only the tree could send messages to those who have died that their fallen lives were as precious and valuable even though they were now just memories of a past worth to be forgotten. A very sad tale for a tree of survival living.