Colors

This is the poem:

Hiroshima Exit

In round round rooms of our wanderings
Victims and victimizers in circular flight
Fact pursuing fact
Warning leaflets still dip down
On soil heavy with flames,
Black rain, footsteps, witnessings –

The Atomic Bomb Memorial Building
A curiosity shop filled with
Remnants of clothing, radiation sickness,
Fleshless faces, tourists muttering
“Well, they started it.”
Words jingle down
“They didn’t think about us in Pearl Harbor”
They? Us?
I tiptoe around the curiosity shop
Seeking my target
Precision becomes essential
Quick. Quick. Before he’s out of range.

Spell the name
America?
Hiroshima?
Aid raid warnings wail bleakly
Hiroshima
Morning.
I step outside
And close softly the door
Believing, believing
That outside this store
Is another door

I need to find some tragic elements, and I was asked to apply 3 tragic terms to the poem.

The reason I am asking is because my English is not very good, and I am having some problems understanding the poem. I’m begging for your help!

Thanks,
Christian

The bombing of Nagasaki and Hiroshima was and still is a source of terrible pain and shame for those who were there and survived. I have watched documentaries and heard survivors stories. First, there is survivor guilt. Then, the shame of defeat (they lost the war). Then there is the stigma of having been exposed to radiation that could cause fetal deformities in the family in the future. Survivors speak of other people making them feel ashamed. Their scars are a reminder of the war, and their disgrace.

The "round, round rooms " probably refers to the rooms in the mind where one goes to worry. Victims and victimizers refers to the fact that we cause each other pain and everyone has some responsibility in this terrible disaster, and everyone is a victim. The bombs were shame on everyone….that we let it go that far. That we could do such a thing. I would label that element..universality. The common experience, the shared guilt and pain and worries. Also duality; that one could be both victim and victimizer.

Then, in the lines "They didn’t think about us..", the writer is showing that we often cope with such horrors by saying that:
-they started it, therefore they deserve it
-they bombed Pearl Harbor so they deserved it

This speaks to the theme of accountability. Yes, we could do it, but should we have?

Finally, I think the writer speaks to the message that this was the only thing to do at the time…i.e. you have to believe their view of the situation, that they felt there was no other option at the time. This speaks of trust in our leaders.

Tragic elements, to me, would be:

-they felt they had no other choice
-to save lives, some lives must be sacrificed
-that the victims are victimized time and again by shame and blame
-many lives were ruined that day…not just the people who died or where injured and exposed to radiation. Future generations where affected. I was affected. This writer was also.

The real tragedy? That we still have these weapons on earth. May we one day lay all the weapons down.