Failure to understand: Paul Oestreicher, eighty years after Hiroshima

‘The world has not learned Mr Roberts’ lesson.’

by Paul Oestreicher 8th August 2025

Eighty years ago, I was thirteen years old, riding my bike to school in Dunedin. 

I was worried. The morning news had told me that one single bomb, an atom bomb, had destroyed the city of Hiroshima. Of course I could not understand how that was possible. Maybe our physics teacher would explain. It was the second lesson of that day. Mr Roberts tried to help us to understand nuclear fusion, or was it fission? We didn’t really understand, and I still don’t. As he was leaving the classroom, he turned and said: ‘Boys, either we now abolish war, or war will abolish us.’