Is it to be remembered? Isn't it something that will serve us well when forgotten? Yes, but it just simply wouldn't go away. Commemorated or not, Hiroshima and Nagasaki is known to be associated with nuclear, even by those regarded to be too young to remember or to know what happened more than 60 years ago.
We should not simply left them with that story on Hiroshima and Nagasaki without also giving them another face of nuclear tecgnology. Thus, the event was commemorated once again, like previous years by many quarters. One was by the Malaysian Nuclear Society (MNS), but not for rekindling that destructive image.
A one-day seminar on the applications of the technology was held at USIM, Bandar Baru Nilai, Wednesday, 6 August. It was attended by more than 300 participants, predominant among them were the would be scientists and researchers - students from the nearby local universities and school children. They are the ones who should know that there are many peaceful uses of the technology, and that its use for destruction is an immoral act and contrary to the reason for pursuing and equipping oneself with knowledge. They were reminded of that.
The bomb was first written about in Malaysia, to my recollection, in a 1952-publication entitled Almanak Melayu, 1952. The promise of the atoms to benefit mankind when properly used was mentioned. Even though descriptions of the fission process may not be that accurate, the efforts to share information and educate general readers on the technology, as early as 1952, is laudable.
