With the broadest principles of freedom for the foundation of our government — with a magnificent country, whose shores are washed by the great oceans, whose lakes are seas, whose rivers are the most majestic that water the earth, whose commerce whitens every sea, whose railroads and canals, like great arteries, intersect its whole surface, and carry life and activity to its remotest corner; whose “magnetic nerves,” with the rapidity of thought, bear intelligence to its distant extremities; with a people springing from the fusion of many races, and whose energies are as inexhaustible as the resources of the country they inhabit, it would seem that here the human mind is destined to develop its highest powers, and that, while on one side its influence will roll back upon the tottering monarchies of Europe, on the other its advancing tide of freedom and civilization will stretch across the Pacific, to the shores of Asia, and pour upon them its fertilizing flood.
—Washington
°
We reached the streetcar stop at Kamiya-cho. The streetcar tracks crossed each other here, and broken overhead wires and cables hung down in tangled profusion over the road. I had a terrifying feeling that one or the other of them must be live, since these were the same wires that one usually saw emitting fierce, bluish white sparks. The occasional refugees who passed to and fro had the sense to crouch down as they passed beneath them.
Mr. Omuro was a man of property, owning mills in three different places, as well as dabbling in calligraphy, painting, and art-collecting. I had visited the house myself several times during the past year for the benefit of his advice… Now, however, it was completely razed to the ground. Where the main building and clay-walled storehouse had once stood was an arid waste scattered with broken tiles.
—Hiroshima
°
[1-1]
A magnificent country,
whose commerce whitens every sea,
whose most majestic railroads and canals, like great arteries,
hang down, broken, in tangled profusion —
I had a terrifying feeling that
one or another of them must
be live,
fierce.
°
[1-2]
A man of property
dabbling in painting and art collecting,
a man of property
whose commerce whitens every sea,
a man of property
with the broadest principles of freedom,
a man of property whose railroads carry
occasional refugees.
°
[1-3]
A magnificent country’s
principles of freedom,
completely razed
to the ground.
Where they had once stood
an arid waste
scattered
with broken tiles
°
[2-1]
Here, it seemed,
the human mind was destined to develop its highest powers.
Here,
it seemed, in the inexhaustible country they inhabit.
Magnetic nerves, with the rapidity of thought,
bore intelligence to distant extremities. I had a terrifying feeling
the mind was destined to spark and tangle: fierce
and white.
°
[2-2]
Here, with a people springing from the fusion of many races,
the human mind is destined to develop its highest powers
of thought.
Calligraphy, painting, art-collecting.
An intelligence
inexhaustible
as a man of property
owning mills in three different places.
°
[2-3]
A people springing from many races
is destined.
A people springing from inexhaustible ground
is destined.
From fission,
a distant people, razed.
From fission an arid waste is destined,
and broken tiles.
°
[3-1]
Stretched across the Pacific,
tottering,
we pour upon them,
roll back on the tide.
A terrifying feeling,
advancing.
Tangled, broken,
we reach the fierce shores of Asia.
°
[3-2]
To the Pacific,
to the shores of Asia,
to pour upon them
the sense of civilization,
the sense of freedom advancing.
On one side of the flood
the tottering refugees
had the sense to crouch.
°
[3-3]
Now,
where the tottering had stood,
clay-walled Asia
was completely razed to the ground.
The storehouse
scattered, broken
in the advancing tide,
the fertilizing flood.
[SOURCE TEXTS: Anne C. Lynch, “A Sketch of Washington City,” Harper’s New Monthly Magazine December 1852; Masuji Ibuse, Black Rain, 1965]