During my high school trip to the Chugoku region, I regretfully did not visit Hiroshima. My first visit was in my early twenties, and then, after more than a decade, I recently visited for the second time.

Both visits included the Peace Memorial Park and the Atomic Bomb Dome. For the latest visit, despite it being autumn, the weather was clear without a single cloud. The scene was peaceful: elementary and junior high school students sketching, Westerners pushing strollers, and people walking by the river where the Dome stands.

However, the area immediately around the Dome, enclosed by a fence, and its shaded interior felt utterly different... There was an alien space where the usual signs of human presence, even those found in a remote abandoned house, were completely absent.

I learned that on that day, many decades ago, the temperature instantly rose to 4,000 degrees Celsius. Iron melts at 1,500 degrees. The surface of the sun is at 6,000 degrees, and red giants like Betelgeuse or Antares are around 3,000 degrees. The temperature was far higher than the melting point of iron, surpassing even the surface temperature of stars. I wondered how people died in such intense heat and realized the meaning of alien space devoid of human presence.

They didn't just die; they were obliterated.

Many say war is wrong, the use of nuclear weapons is wrong, and people killing each other is wrong. But why?

The sorrow of leaving loved ones behind, the grief of having a cherished everyday life cut off, the sadness of those left behind, the despair of wishing to see someone just one more time but realizing it will never happen again-if everyone could ponder these things... That's what I believe.

Both performing and composing music require "imagination" (not creation). More than a decade ago, when my father was still alive, we had a discussion.

"Shunsei, don't you think about making a contribution to society through music?"
"I think music should just be for the sake of music" I replied.

I was wrong. Music may not express ideology or creed, but it does express the heart. Therefore...

(Toshinari Iijima)