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By Rev. Charles W. Anderson
But Hiroshima is also an exceed ingly wicked city, and a very hard place in which to work. Vice, black marketing, and gambling are rampant here. Wild, fanatical Buddhism holds sway with the Buddhists who imi tate the Christians even to the extent o f holding open-air meetings in an effort to evangelize for Buddha. To complicate matters further, the Ro man Catholics have gained a strong foothold here and are laying strong foundations for the future by build ing schools, churches, and even open ing Roman Catholic hotels. Just as two mighty powers met in a physical struggle at Hiroshima— so are two spiritual powers engaged in a bitter struggle over this city o f death. Sa tan does not surrender his strong holds easily, therefore, he is intensi fying his efforts to gain this city. As one walks across the great “ Atomic desert” (the area utterly de stroyed by the stupendous A Bomb), as he talks with the blistered, burned, and broken people in the hospitals of Hiroshima, the horror becomes a reality. Here, I felt, as never before, was the real test o f the power o f our Gospel and its Christ. It is one thing to preach this message in comfortable America; it is quite another thing to preach it in bomb-scarred Hiroshima. It is one thing to hurl the challenge o f Christ at complacent, self-satisfied Americans; it is quite different to proclaim it with conviction to those who have witnessed the greatest hor ror ever manufactured by men. In the Red Cross Hospital we stood before one o f Hiroshima’s living dead, a Japanese whose whole body from the waist up, including his arms, was a mass o f twisted, tortured,, lumpy flesh. His fingers were twisted and stiff. He had been standing a full mile from the spot where on Au gust 6th, 1945, at 8:15 P.M., the mighty Atom Bomb burst in fury. Seeing the fearful flash, he instinc tively turned his back, and an instant (Continued on Page 19) T H E K I N G ' S B U S I N E S S
Even while I write, the headlines o f the newspapers on Hiroshima’s newsstalls are screaming o f another deadly bomb far more potent than the A Bomb. This time it is a Hydro gen Bomb. The faces o f the people are covered with the oriental mask of unemotionalism — but what wild thoughts o f fear and dread pass through their minds as they read these banner lines? And yet a new and even more potent force has come to Hiroshima, city o f death. To this city o f gloom and despair, suffering and death, a new power is bursting with even more far reaching effects. Hiroshima knows of a power which can destroy life with unbelievable fury and effectiveness; it is learning o f another power which can produce life with even greater thoroughness. That force, that power, is the life- giving, life-changing, life-producing, Word of God. Paul once called the Gospel o f Christ, “ The power o f God unto salvation.” Here in this are seen the effects o f the power o f man unto destruction—here, too, is being dem onstrated “ The power of God unto salvation . . Christians, too, have suffered here in Hiroshima. One church in this city had half its members wiped out in the atomic explosion. Of course, its building was destroyed also. The faithful pastor o f that church has four children o f his own. But in the aftermath o f the bomb his brother and wife, parents o f five children, were killed instantly in a landslide. Now the pastor struggles on, support ing nine children on a salary o f $50.00 per month. When we preached in that church one Sunday night, there was an unusual demonstration of the Holy Spirit. At the invitation over fifty people came forward to receive Christ as Saviour. Japanese personal work ers assisted the pastor as he dealt with these inquirers one by one be fore the entire praying congregation. Other reports have indicated that the Spirit o f God is being poured out in great power in other meetings in this city.
T HE little Japanese steamer chugged resolutely up the In land Sea, and from the top deck where I stood, I saw a flash o f a sig nal light ashore. The horn croaked its answer, and our Captain indicated that Hiroshima lay ahead. In five minutes we would be landing. For five hours we had steamed slowly up the narrow sea with the towering, ter raced mountains reaching their jagged heads up on each side. But there was a sense o f excitement and awe which I could not suppress. We were on our way to Hiroshima! Hiroshima! an obscure, sprawling, Japanese city on the southern mainland of the island o f Honshu. Who had ever heard o f Hiro shima in that larger world outside of Japan? No one— until one day a lone American bomber roared out o f the skies on its historic mission o f death. “ Bombs away!” and the single squeeze on the release trigger by an American bombardier flung open the door to a whole, new, frightful and fearful age. The Atomic Age burst upon the world in these very skies under which I now write. The city o f Hiroshima sprang in an instant into historic fame. Its name will never die out in the minds o f still unborn generations. Hiroshima is a city o f death. Every where the ghastly marks o f a hideous and frightful scourge have left its scars on its face and in its heart. Hiroshima knows as no city on earth knows— the frightful meaning o f the term “ Atomic power.” Let the scien tists talk o f all the magic possibilities of this new mighty giant which the Aladdin’s Lamp o f Science has awak ened from slumber — the people of Hiroshima have felt the chill breath o f death. It blew out o f the skies one day and burst with maddening, stun ning fury upon an unsuspecting popu lace.
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