That is actually a thoughtful and reflective post, Solon.
You might profit from visiting the A-Bomb www Project, based in Hiroshima. The following comments are from the Producer, Professor Mitsuru Ohba:
csi.ad.jp
he website is neither meant to condemn nor condone the bombing, but is meant as a way for
people to express their views on how to achieve peace, on what peace is, and other thoughts about
peace. We hope that everyone will write in their thoughts," said Prof. Mitsuru Ohba.
I wish that Japanese people, we, were more serious about our history. If so, we could have really
faced our past. We have never realized: it was the event that should have been carefully recorded
and that the peoples of the next generation have to learn.
Blaming our counter-part by emphasizing that we were victims of the bombing and asking for an
apology to satisfy ourselves are senseless from the history perspectives. The issue is: "What can we
learn from our past?"
History is a class room to learn our past. What we learn are not just names, words nor numbers in
textbooks; they were real lives. We need to share our knowledge of the past with others.
After reading the recent report by Newsweek on "Hiroshima: August 6, 1945" (July 24, 1995 issue),
I realized how our counter-part people seriously confront their past and are serious to learn what it
was and what it means. Have we reviewed our past to that extent?
Have we seriously examined what Nanjing Massacre was or what Pearl Harbor was? After starting
this service, I have received two e-mails from the persons who looked at this WWW museum and
who wrote about Pearl Harbor; they are an American and a Japanese.
It should be noted that the Nanjing Massacre WWW home page is linked to this WWW museum in
the related work section. We have to undestand and to learn what World War II was and what we
did.
World War II ended a half-century ago. The few remaining participants in the war will soon be gone from this earth. For the living, there are lessons to be learned from the war experience, as from all historical events. These lessons will come from thoughtful analysis and discussion, accompanied by respect for differing interpretations and views. Lessons will not be learned ...all these years later ... from strident demands for apologies, nor from insistence upon assigning blame. |
