Contemplating Two Fantastics

At exactly 8:15 a.m. on August, 6 1945, the United States dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan, killing approximately 70,000 people. It wouldn't be until years later that the extent of the damage from "Little Boy's" radiation would be fully understood. 

Yesterday morning thousands congregated in Hiroshima for a memorial service that included delegations from: The United States, Great Britain, France and Russia, just to name a few.

In Dobbs Ferry, locals also gathered to discuss the attack, but here the moment of silence was observed at 7:15 p.m., at exactly the same moment all went quiet on the other side of the world.

"My sister is in Hiroshima right now," Walter Stugis, the Hastings resident who organized the peace vigil, said. "I wanted to share the exact same moment with her." 

Stugis' father fought in the Pacific during World War II, and when Stugis later asked what his father thought of the bomb, he responded: "It was fantastic"—fantastic in the sense that its damage was staggering and inconceivable.

Years later, Stugis' nephew moved to Japan and married a Japanese woman.  Ten days ago, his nephew became father to his second child, a girl.  When Stugis showed his father a photograph of the two Japanese-American children, his father responded, "That is fantastic."

The theme of Thursday's vigil held at the South Presbyterian Church in Dobbs Ferry was to "contemplate the fantastics"—or just to think about the number of lives claimed in an instant, verses the lives created in Stugis' family because of peace and cross-cultural tolerance.

"I wanted to sit in my church and bond with my sister," Stugis explained.

Local peace activist, author and history teacher Frank Brodhead came with photos and a wealth of knowledge and stories that held the small group captivated until the crucial moment when everyone would reflect independently.  Based on information he has collected from a variety of contemporary historians, Brodhead put forth a point-of-view that counters the mainstream rationale for dropping the atomic bomb.

"Soldiers and sailors didn't know what we know now," Brodhead said. "They didn't know that Japan had been trying to surrender since April."

Brodhead, a founder of the Hasings-based peace group "Concerned Families of Westchester," has focused his studies mainly on American history and issues relating to peace and human rights violations.

"That 1 million lives were saved as a result of the bomb is a pernicious and devastating myth because it suggests it served a beneficial purpose," Brodhead said. "[President] Truman kept inflating the number of people saved as justification. That was just a fantasy."

Concerned Families was created a few days after September, 11 2001. "And since then our concern has shifted from victims of the attacks in New York, to innocent victims in Afganistan, Iraq and soon Iran. It's exhausting, really," Brodhead said.

Pastor Joe Gilmore, the minister of South Presbyterian Church, was also present, but said he had never discussed the atomic bombs with his father. "It's a question I've bumped into a lot—sometimes with real heat," he said. "Even some high school students who have studied it in class don't seem to have all the facts." 

At 7:15, the group separated, with each person claiming a separate pew in the airy sanctuary. 

The vigil ended at different times, as each attendant felt his or her moment of silence and solidarity had been fulfilled. 

"I was definitely with my sister," Stugis said. "It was kind of chilling, actually."