Anniversary of Hiroshima
August 8th, 2006 by cloudysunshine
Sunday, August 6th (Japan), and Saturday, August 5th (America), was the anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima, so there were lots of specials on TV about the war. I was here last year for the 60th anniversary of the bombing, and it was interesting to see everything from the Japanese perspective. I remember being nervous to ride the train on the days around the 5th, expecting people to still be pissed for what America did 60 years ago, but nobody even stared.
Looking one year back, I feel pretty silly for anticipating such a reaction, but hey, I come from America! People have been killed there for simply wearing a turbin on their head (Remember the poor Indian guy after 9/11?). People in Japan can be just as racist as anywhere else, but it’s more of a passive racism.
Anyway, I found some of the specials this year very interesting. There was one about the doctors of Unit 731, the Japanese medical unit responsible for carrying out sickening experiments on POW’s and civilians. It’s not the first time I’ve heard about Unit 731, but maybe for some Japanese it was.
Last year, huge anti-Japan protests in China were sparked by controversy over the handling of the Japanese military’s atrocities during WWII in certain schoolbooks here, as well as Prime Minister Koizumi’s repeated visits to Yasukuni Shrine (a shrine for Japan’s 2.5 million war dead, including 14 Class A war criminals). I remember discussing it with some students here awhile back, and most of them couldn’t comprehend why China was so pissed.
It seemed the extent of their knowledge about WWII was, “The Japanese military did some bad things.” I mentioned “The Bataan Death March” and they looked at me like I was from outer space.
My friends, ages 25-35, have told me what they remember being taught about WWII at school. Basically, not much about the war itself, or the causes of it, and instead, a whole lot about Hiroshima and the total devastation caused by America’s bombing campaigns. It’s funny, cause what I remember from my American public school education was almost the opposite:
A lot about the war and the bad guys who started it…then Hiroshima. Basically, that a lot of people died, but this prevented the deaths of many more. There weren’t many details, just some numbers on a page of how many died. So it seems both countries have a habit of glossing over their misdeeds, but this is probably true for most nations around the world.
The first time I saw a documentary on Hiroshima, I saw the faces of people dying from radiation sickness. It was so sad to see the look in their eyes. It was a look of hopelessness, as they most likely knew they were going to die. At that moment, I understood the pain the American military caused the Japanese people.
That’s why I thought it was really good to have a documentary about Unit 731 shown here in Japan. I talked to some Japanese friends who watched it and were shocked to hear that such acts of barbarism actually occured. Maybe now they’ll have a better understanding of the Chinese viewpoint of the war.
Every country twists history to suit their own needs, but this only enables the horrors of the past to repeat themselves.
First of all, I want to pick up one thing. Anniversary of Hiroshima is Aug. 6th. After 3 days, then, Nagasaki. It’s just a tiny information.
Anyway,
“…expecting people to still be pissed for what America did 60 years ago,…”
It’s funny to hear about your experience. But don’t worry. I also have a similar one.
When I traveled to Hawaii with my mom, who was a high school student during WWII, she eagered to see Pearl Harbor. So, we joined the harbor cruising tour. When the ship arrived in front of the wreck of Battleship ARIZONA, there was an announcement; it said “Let’s pray silently for a while”. All of the people on board stood up and praied for the ARIZONA. I hadn’t realized until that moment…we were the only Japanese! I felt small and guilty, and was nervouse about the situation, dispite nobody on board looked at us with evil eyes or cursed out Japanese.
I praied toward it not like others but Budish way. It was my style to show my feeling.
We tend to remind only our side pain. But, I think, to put oneself in the opposite situation, and try to imagine the other side’s pain is important. I think it helps to pull up people’s cultur level.
You\’re right that it happened the morning of August 6th in Japan. America is one day behind, so it was August 5th for us. I got in the habit of remembering it as August 5th because that\’s the B-Day of someone in my family. I always remember her being sad that her birthday\’s the same day as Hiroshima.
But as the bomb was dropped in Japan, I feel the Japanese date should be the one used, so I edited my post to include both. Thanks for pointing that out!
Your story about visiting Pearl Harbor is an interesting one, and I like what you said here:
\”We tend to remind only our side pain. But, I think, to put oneself in the opposite situation, and try to imagine the other side’s pain is important.\”
That\’s so true. I saw this really good documentary awhile back where they brought Japanese and American WWII veterans together to share their memories of the war. All had lost good friends and some of them seemed like they could never forgive their enemies.
But many did, and actually ended up becoming friends. I\’ll never forget seeing a Japanese pilot, who flew in the Pearl Harbor mission, meeting with a sailor from the USS Arizona. Wow, that was an emotional moment!
You\’d think it would have ended in a fight, but after they talked, it ended in tears…and a hug! The two guys ended up talking for hours about the war, and their lives after it.
I guess seeing the war from the other\’s perspective helped them not only to heal their own pain, but also to forgive. It was really interesting.
Oh, gosh! I had never thought that the Anniversary of Hiroshima is Aug. 5th in America! Most of Japanese think it was only the tragedy for Japanese. So, I reckon that the Anniversary date must be known Aug. 6th in worldwide. But if to have dropped bomb is a burden for some American people, the date must be rememberd in Aug. 5th in America.
It’s a good example that each side thinks about only its own side, isn’t it? Interesting.