Leaving the past behind and moving on is difficult. Some things are etched so deep in the memory that they stay like scars on the face of history, forever.

As the US celebrates the historic nuclear deal with Iran and the world dreads the chances of a possibly apocalyptic nuclear war, Japan remembers the event, which has led to the idea of nuclear warfare sending chills down one’s spine.

Exactly 70 years ago, Hiroshima in Japan came into the spotlight for a reason no city would want to. US airplanes dropped an atomic bomb on the city, home to 3.5 lakh people, marking the first ever use of a nuclear weapon in conflict.

The bomb not only reduced the city to ruins, but it also led to radiation contaminating the environment, killing 1.4 lakh people by the end of 1945. Days after the terrifying military action, Japan surrendered marking the end of the second world war.

Those who survived left the city because of radiation and reports that nothing will grow in the area for years. But, only a year later, a flower blossomed among the ruins and urged hopeful people to return and rebuild their city.

Today, Hiroshima is a bustling city, but the memories of a once broken city still live on alongside it. Now the city is home to 1.2 million people and several reminders of the war, some replaced by new structures and some preserved as they are.

Sites such as the Atomic Bomb Dome and the Hiroshima bank, which were partially damaged, have stayed on as relics of a city, which was burnt to ashes with a single explosion. Today the world can only imagine the horror that the residents of Hiroshima had to endure.

Back then it was a ghost town with thousands dead and many more suffocating, now it is a bustling metropolis. Then, it was a story of despair, and now, it is an epic tale of hope and survival.

A lot has changed since then as Hiroshima has come a long way, but the unbroken human spirit, is still the same. Decades later, as the world is gripped in conflicts and millions live in despair, humanity still needs to look back and learn lessons from the tragedy.

The terror spelled by the inhuman act, might have brought a mighty army to its knees, but it was futile against the undying desire to rebuild their city from ruins, which existed among the people of Hiroshima.

The event is said to have ended a war, but the peace achieved by sacrificing innocent lives will remain a haunting one.