Honshu is the name of the biggest island of Japan and home to at least one (if not both) of the two cities destroyed by atomic bombs in 1945. The sun taking its vengeance refers to the explosion. Then, the skies turned white and warm powder rained down. The words subterranean and underground refer to fallout shelters.
I believe the second verse is criticizing the decision to use a nuclear attack on mainland Japan because "while the men have gone away to fight, the innocent huddle..." In other words, the attacks killed mostly civilians while the Japanese military was spread out over the Pacific.
Honshu is the name of the biggest island of Japan and home to at least one (if not both) of the two cities destroyed by atomic bombs in 1945. The sun taking its vengeance refers to the explosion. Then, the skies turned white and warm powder rained down. The words subterranean and underground refer to fallout shelters.
I believe the second verse is criticizing the decision to use a nuclear attack on mainland Japan because "while the men have gone away to fight, the innocent huddle..." In other words, the attacks killed mostly civilians while the Japanese military was spread out over the Pacific.