August 6th, is a day of international mourning for the victims of Hiroshima. Peace vigils, memorial services, prayer services, masses, protests and all kinds of observations will be organized, to remember the 70,000 dead.
In Oak Ridge, Tennessee every year, there is a small service performed at 8:15 on the morning of August 6th. outside the main entrance of the Y-12 National Security Complex, where the uranium used in the Hiroshima was enriched.
I’ve never been to the service, but video is on the Internet. Many prayers are offered, there is a bell which is rung at appropriate moments and although the crowd is small there is no doubting the sincerity of the mourners or their desires for a more peaceful world.
For all their sincerity though, all of the services are profoundly disrespectful of the dead. To memorialize the dead, it is wise to make sure the setting, the ceremony and the environment is totally respectful. They get one tiny fact wrong, in their planning. They get the time wrong.
When all those bells chime across the eastern United States in honoring of the dead, it is done 13 hours late. The bomb was detonated at 7:15 on the evening of August 5th. It seems these services would be far more powerful if they could get the basic facts right.