Description
Mr Sperry talks about what it was like going to Hiroshima a few weeks after the Atomic Bomb was dropped.
Bishop John Sperry
Mr. Sperry was born on Leicester, England, in 1924. He joined the Royal Navy in 1943 and served until 1946 on Destroyer, Escort and Convoy Duty. Upon completion of his tour of duty, Bishop Sperry immigrated to Canada in 1960, serving parishes in Kugluktuk (formerly Coppermine) and Fort Smith. He served as diocesan bishop from 1973 to 1990 and is the author of <em>Igloo Dwellers Were My Church</em>, a memoir of his ministry in the North. An accomplished linguist, he was involved in the Inuktitut Bible translation for the people of the Western Arctic. In retirement, he works with health and volunteer organizations and is Chaplain of the Canadian Forces Northern Region. On July 5, 2002, he was named to the Order of Canada.
Transcript
This was some weeks after the bombs dropped that we went to Sasebo and into the inter Inland Sea. We visited Nagasaki first and were able to see what an atomic bomb, bomb can do although that, that they missed, they wanted to. There's like two hollowed out area, areas and they wanted to bomb, bomb both areas and I think they missed getting the major effect. But then we went to Kure, which is the naval, big naval base, which is normally far away from Hiroshima, that we had time to visit Hiroshima, which is four square miles of absolute charred devastation and the roads had been cleared a little bit. I noticed there was no American, no American personnel there at all, whether they realized about radiation, I don't know. A few policemen, and pathetic Japanese families poking around some of the, the area, if there's anything left. The, the buildings, a few buildings made of concrete, were, stood. We kind of went a tour of them and they were not terrible damaged in a sense, but the rest of it was just rubble and so we saw, what you call a, a truly bombed city.