Regarding the recent DU debate on the use of nuclear weapons against Japan

[WilliamPitt]

I thought this would make a good addition.

===

http://www.schreiner.edu/pip/events.html

In the Shadow of the Atomic Bomb: 60 Years of US/Japan Relations
Schreiner University Labatt Speech, July 17, 2005

By Jun Hoshikawa



Sixty years ago yesterday, July 16 th , the world's first nuclear explosion took place at White Sands, New Mexico . This first nuclear test, called ‘Trinity' by Dr. Robert Oppenheimer, known as ‘the father of the atomic bomb', was the culmination of a race between the U.S. and Nazi Germany to develop this ultimate weapon. As we now know, America won the race.

Sixty years ago today, July 17 th , President Harry Truman met with Josef Stalin and Winston Churchill at Potsdam in the now-defeated Germany to discuss post-war plans for Germany and Japan – which had not yet surrendered. History notes that Truman scheduled the conference for July 17 th so that the United States would be in a position to dictate post-war policy to Stalin – who wasn't much trusted in the West.

The Potsdam Declaration issued by the three allied leaders on July 26 th outlined the terms on which Japan was to surrender but, significantly, it did not discuss the post-war status of the Japanese Emperor. Because of this, the Japanese government ignored the Potsdam Declaration and, as a result, the U.S. dropped its first nuclear weapon, a uranium-type bomb named ‘Little Boy' on the city of Hiroshima on August 6 th , 1945. And when Japan still didn't surrender, the U.S. dropped a second nuclear bomb, this time a plutonium-type weapon named ‘Fat Man' on the city of Nagasaki on August 9 th .

Roughly 210,000 people died immediately or soon after these two nuclear explosions from blast, heat, and the severest radiation syndromes of the earliest phase. Approximately the same number were affected by the delayed radiation syndromes. These became known as Hibakusha , which means ‘surviving victims of the atomic bomb' often with emphasis on radiation symptoms. While many Hibakusha died long ago a number of them still live today, and they and their families quietly suffer varying degree of genetic disorders.

With these two mushroom clouds the world entered the age of nuclear war and, for the first time in history, the human race was capable of exterminating itself together with its civilization, and poisoning the planet forever and a day. Some of the radioactive elements keep active for thousands, millions, even billions of years.

I was born in Tokyo in 1952, seven years after the war ended. Fortunately nobody in my family died or was injured in either of the atomic explosion. So, unlike many Japanese alive today, I am not qualified to speak to you about Hiroshima or Nagasaki as the result of direct experience. However, as a first generation post war Japanese who has lived all my life in a society that has never forgotten these experiences, and as a person who has visited both Ground Zeros and pondered about them, the experience has taken on a reality of its own: Hiroshima has become part of my blood, and Nagasaki has become part of my flesh, to an extent.

I would like to mention one other reason why I believe that I may qualify to share my thoughts with you this evening. As a young, sensitive boy growing up early in the period we now call the ‘Cold War', I used to be terrified by the shrieking sound of an airplane passing high overhead, certain that it was a Soviet missile attacking Tokyo and that I was to be vaporized the next instant. I call it an ‘Instant War.' For me as a child the simple sound of a jet plane was a threat that felt as real and as final as anything could be.

This age of fearful anticipation of death by the nuclear attack lasted well into my adolescence, and for most of my early life I was certain that I would never see the 21 st century. I dared not imagine myself having children because I could not bear to think of them suffering nuclear holocaust.

Eventually as I grew older my fear turned to a search for a better world, one where there is no fear of the ‘Great Death'. Does this sound familiar to some of you here tonight? I think that many young people since the 1960s have undertaken this same search – they have been called hippies, flower children, peaceniks, and sometimes much more angry names. None of us alive today can escape knowing that we are the children of the nuclear age and if you don't think of yourself that way, well, I would say that you may be a wishful thinker. We call ourselves Homo Sapiens , Wise Man, but I don't think we are wise enough yet for anyone to be too optimistic when the world is still laden with 30,000 nuclear warheads. In some ways, in fact, we may be becoming less wise, increasingly oblivious of the threat of nuclear war now that the ‘Cold War' has been declared to be over.

Beginning in my 20s, after some study, reflection and meditation, I began to grow a little more relaxed about my prospects for the future. I got married and had a child, and as evidence that my new optimism may be justified – look! Here we all are, alive, together in amazing 2005, and still on this earthly realm, in spite of all those crises over the intervening years that periodically brought the world to the brink of nuclear war.

But by and large I still carry many of the ‘Instant War' fears of my childhood with me, as I believe many in the world do to this day. In this sense, all of us are qualified to talk about Hiroshima and Nagasaki because they are still a living part of us - a common heritage. In fact, the Hiroshima ‘Atomic Dome' was designated a World Cultural Heritage site in 1996 by the United Nations. I'll show the picture of the dome later in the slide presentation.

Having shared my personal journey with you as an introduction, I would now like to focus on the topic of my talk tonight – “In The Shadow of the Atomic Bomb; 60 years of US/Japan Relations”.

The time span of 60 years has a special significance in the classic Chinese calendar, which Japan and most of the rest of East Asia still use along with the Western solar calendar. 60 years is a significant number because it completes one full cycle composed of 12 animals and the five natural elements. Thus 60 years marks a grand return to the beginning, a completion. For example, in Japan the 60 th birthday is a time of great celebration, and it is quite a sight to see a 60 year-old dressed up in special red clothing that is reminiscent of an infant.

Similarly, according to this perspective, the modern world may have completed a full cycle since the end of WWII. But since evolution is not a circle but a spiral, you may come around to the similar point of origin after a cycle, but it is on a different level. And from there on you begin a whole new cycle. I hope that my talk this evening will allow us to celebrate this graduation, and our entrance into a new cycle of history together.

Please let me say right now that I am not here to cast blame on America for the nuclear bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, nor am I here to engage in the argument about whether or not the bombings were justified by strategic or political considerations. What I would like to do this evening is to share with you the other side of reality – what actually happens to people, any people, anywhere who are hit by a nuclear weapon. I hope to give you some understanding of the people under the mushroom cloud, and hope that this understanding will help us all to see the whole story of these events and their aftermath.

I would also like to say that I am not in any sense an apologist for what Imperial Japan did under the militaristic regime during those horrible years leading up to and during WWII. In hindsight it is clear to me, and to many Japanese, that we were all engulfed by a nationalistic fever that wound up almost consuming our entire people and perhaps the world.

For those of you not familiar with how WWII came to be from the perspective of Japan let me offer a brief explanation. Many of you may know that shortly after Japan had its first encounter with the West in the mid-1500s it reacted violently against these outside influences and closed itself off entirely. No westerners were allowed into Japan for over 200 years, and any Japanese who showed any signs of having been influenced by western ideas were hunted down and killed. (Of course, as usual for any regime, there were exceptions, especially toward the end of this isolation period.) Finally in 1868 the American Admiral Perry sailed into Tokyo Bay and demanded that Japan open itself to Western trade and diplomacy, threatening to burn Japanese cities with incendiary cannon fire if the rulers did not comply. They did, and this began a period of flourishing culture, a booming economy, and – in retrospect – a dangerous rise of the Japanese militarism. In fact, by the late 1800s Japan had the third largest navy in the world, after the US and Great Britain.

Seeing the steady advance of Western colonial nations throughout Asia the new Japanese government decided that if Japan was not to become another Western colony it must itself become a colonial power. Thus began a series of wars between Japan and its Far Eastern neighbors, all of which were successful from the Japanese point of view. Shortly after this period of military expansion in the early 20 th century Japan fell victim to the worldwide economic depression which many people here in the U.S. must also still remember. This provided the Japanese militarists a favorable environment of social insecurity in which to establish themselves firmly in control of the country, leading to the catastrophe that Americans remember as Pearl Harbor.

In retrospect this was a period of many mistakes in judgment, and along with the majority of sensible people in Japan I regret and sincerely apologize for the millions of deaths and untold suffering caused in Asia by militaristic Imperial Japan. We also deeply regret the loss of lives suffered by the Western allies as they fought against Imperial Japan. When I talk about the suffering and death caused by the atomic bombings I want you to know that I have never forgotten how these horrible events happened as a direct consequence of the deeds of my forebears. I also hope that you will agree that acknowledging one's past and responsibility, be they personal or collective, is a prerequisites for moving forward into a wiser future.

...more...

[stellanoir]

1. Sound familiar. . .?

". . . In hindsight it is clear to me, and to many Japanese, that we were all engulfed by a nationalistic fever that wound up almost consuming our entire people and perhaps the world. . ."

[GOPisEvil]

2. .

:kick: This is quite interesting reading.