In 1988 I was in the Navy and my Seabee Battalion was deployed to Guam, an island in the far western Pacific Ocean.
The atom bomb pit “No.1” on Tinian’s North Field, where Little Boy was loaded aboard the Enola Gay. Picture by DAVIDRADICH at English Wikipedia – Taken by David Radich. Transferred from en.wikipedia to Commons by מתניה., Public Domain, Link
We did a training exercise where we had to fly to a small island called Tinian and participate in war games with other branches of the military. One day a group of us went to visit an old World War II era abandoned airstrip. The planes used to hoist up bombs from concrete pits before taking off on their missions.
At one of these loading stations there was a plaque on the wall that said that on August 6, 1945 the Enola Gay took off from that very spot to drop the atomic bomb called “Little Boy” on Hiroshima, Japan. It was an awkward moment as we remembered the reality of that tragic event.
That was no war game.
Over 70,000 people were killed immediately with about as many injured. Thousands more would die from radiation poisoning and burns. The vast majority were civilians. After the bombing of Nagasaki, the Japanese surrendered on August 15, 1945, the date which would become the Solemnity of the Assumption of Our Blessed Mother.
What I have learned since that day at Tinian is that there were miracles at both Nagasaki and Hiroshima associated with the Holy Rosary. In the 1930’s St. Maximilian Kolbe had chosen a place in Nagasaki for a missionary friary because that city is known as the center of Catholicism in Japan. People told him that he chose a bad spot because it was behind a mountain instead of in the city center, but the saint insisted. The mountain protected the Franciscans from the blast of the atomic bomb and they attributed their survival to the intercession of Our Lady and praying the Rosary.
No doubt St. Maximilian was also interceding for them in Heaven, as he had died as a martyr at Auschwitz on August 14, 1941.
An even more clear miracle occurred at Hiroshima. Just eight blocks from ground zero a community of four German Jesuit priests and their residence were relatively unharmed despite the utter destruction of almost everything around them. They were told they would die from radiation sickness but they all lived long lives with no ill effects from the horrible blast. They were examined by many doctors and scientists and no one could explain how they were still alive and healthy. Fr. Hubert Schiffer, SJ bore witness that he and his brother priests survived because they were living the message of Fatima and praying the Rosary every day.
In His Goodness, Our Father in Heaven intervenes in history to remind us that He is with us and there is nothing to fear really, except sin. Because sin is the only thing that can separate us from Him. And the Rosary is a great gift and a powerful weapon against evil. Let us imitate the good examples of these religious who survived such horrors by also praying the Rosary every day, especially for peace as Our Lady of Fatima requested.
Happy Solemnity of the Assumption!
God bless you.
Fr. Peter