"Weapons are like money; no one knows the meaning of enough."
- Introduction: Thinkability, Einstein's Monsters by Martin Amis
Cartoon by famous Indian cartoonist of the time - Shankar, published in Hindustan Times dated September 11, 1945. [Found in a special issue of HT dated July 11, 2009 with the caption: This cartoon portrays the devastation caused by the bomb and America's bewilderment at Japanese reaction. They perhaps expected the Japanese to be grateful for freeing them of one of the Axis powers.]
The atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki were nuclear attacks near the end of World War II against the Empire of Japan by the United States at the executive order of U.S. President Harry S. Truman on August 6 and August 9, 1945, respectively.
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A timely reminder about the futility of the arms race, though noone seems to talk about it any more!
ReplyDeleteShankar was such a genius, thank you for bringing him back to the public domain.
Yeah there wasn't much about it in the papers. May be it will be bigger news next year when we get a more rounded '65 years since the tragedy'. Interestingly, according to Google Trends for 6th August, Hiroshima and Nagasaki was one of the top 10 queries in India.
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Great Shankar Pillai, working in his studio. From Life Magazine dated 1943
At a function in Bishop Cotton School, I was lucky enough to hear some school-going youngsters argue eloquently against the use of atomic weaponry. One only hopes that they will continue to believe in these things when they grow up and should they become policy-makers!
ReplyDeleteThat picture of Shankar's is superb! He looks like a cross between Peter Sellers & Laxman's common man :)
School is the best time to nurture such thoughts. In school one may have thought, 'Buddha smiles, a secret code for Nuclear blast. That's idiotic!' and years later, all grown up, one may like to add, 'While they were at it, Why not Buddha Lol or better still Buddha RUTF?'.
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