Hiroshima, Nagasaki, and the Apologies and Changes That Still Haven’t Come
Photo of a memorial event by Andrew Dunn (1990); see end of post for the heartbreaking details
I think I was in early junior high when I first became aware of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, not the way I had been made “aware” in history or social studies classes, where the sickening effects, immediate and long-term, of U.S. actions were glossed over and all but ignored, but truly aware. My father had a habit, throughout my childhood, of pulling down books from his shelves and handing them to his bookworm eldest daughter. And this time, he presented me with an old, worn book with a plain undecorated cover (a library edition, perhaps?), titled simply Hiroshima. My memory isn’t clear — I haven’t seen the book in years – but upon quick research, I was able to conclude that it was John Hersey’s Hiroshima, which was first published as an extended New Yorker article in 1946 and which tells the story of the bombings and the aftermath via several Japanese victims’ true personal accounts. What I remember distinctly about the book was the experience of reading it — the nausea that overcame me, the horror that filled me, the tears I cried, and a couple particular descriptions and mental images that broke my heart and never left my head.
Sixty-five years after the United States dropped that horrendous bomb on the people of Hiroshima and almost 65 years since it did the same to the people of Nagasaki, today was the first time a U.S. delegate attended the annual memorial ceremony in Japan. And 65 years later, the United States still hasn’t apologized.
From the Christian Science Monitor:
While some Japanese hailed the presence of the US and other nuclear powers as a sign of commitment to eventual nuclear disarmament, for others it was too little, too late. Some Japanese still want an apology for the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, while others complained about the absence of President Obama.
Some of Hiroshima’s hibakusha – as atomic bomb survivors are known – criticized the US ambassador for failing to meet with them, apologize for the bombing, or even offer a floral tribute. Others however, saw his visit as a sign of progress.
On the streets of Tokyo, there were mixed feelings regarding the US delegation’s attendance. “It’s good they’ve come, but why has it taken 65 years?” asked an office worker who was watching the morning’s ceremony from Hiroshima on public broadcast NHK. “And really, Obama should be here after the speeches he’s made about nuclear weapons.”
After so much terror, so much death, so much devastation and maiming and illness, effects of which continue to this day, someone from the United States finally and merely showing up at the ceremony, 65 years and hundreds of thousands of deaths later, isn’t enough “progress.” (Yet apparently, there are some right-wingers who disagree even with the idea of a U.S. delegate attending the memorial because they think that comes too close to an apology. Wow.)
But of course, if the United States were to apologize, if we were to acknowledge the wrongness of what we did, would that open the door for further, louder discussion about what we are apparently still prepared to do? About the stockpile of nuclear weapons to which the United States is still clinging? About the policies that haven’t changed nearly enough?
Consider the following from The Nation’s Greg Mitchell (who I’m glad to see raise, among other issues, the blind spots in Countdown to Zero, which I’ve not yet seen but the trailer for which raised related questions for me):
Hiroshima, in any case, remains a vital lesson for us all, not only for the first use of a nuclear weapon there but because of the “first use” nuclear policy the US maintains today.
It’s a subject practically off-limits in the media and in American policy circle. Even the current antinuclear documentary Countdown to Zero, which outlines many serious nuclear dangers (from an accidental launch to a terror attack on America), fails to even mention the possibility that the US might choose to use nuclear weapons again. Resisting a no-first-use policy, in fact, has been a cornerstone of US nuclear policy for decades.
Yet despite some positive signs from Obama, I fear that moving very far in the direction of no-first-use is still a long way off in America.
Perhaps the strongest reason is this: most Americans, our media and our leaders (including every president), have endorsed our “first-use” of the bomb against Japan. This remains true today, despite new evidence and analysis that have emerged for so many years. I’ve been writing about this for almost thirty years—even in book form—with little shift in the polls or change in heart among our policymakers and elected officials.
There has also been little change abroad—where the use of the bomb in 1945 has been roundly condemned from the beginning. Indeed, US support, even pride, in our use of the weapon has given us little moral standing in arguing that other countries should not develop nuclear weapons and consider using them, possibly as a first, not a last, resort (that’s our policy, remember).
And:
Over and over top policymakers and commentators say, “We must never use nuclear weapons,” yet they endorse the two times the weapons have been used against cities in a first strike. To make any exceptions, even in the past and in a horrid situation, means exceptions can be made in the future….
The fact that the United States first developed, and then used—twice—the WMD to end all WMDs has severely compromised our arguments against others building the weapon ever since. Hiroshima was our original sin.
The U.S. government may not be ready to express regret and sorrow and apology for what happened 65 years ago today, what happened 65 years ago this coming Monday, or what happened in all the weeks and years and decades to follow. But it owes the victims, the survivors, the family members, the descendents, the communities that apology. And it owes everyone on the planet, and the planet itself, a shift in policy overall.
I saw this video shared by someone this morning; be aware in advance that watching it without sobbing will be difficult. (Because others may remark on it, I’ll note in advance that I too think it odd that the end of the video focuses in on the presumably American woman in the crowd.)
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About the image above by Andrew Dunn, from Wikimedia:
Japanese school children dedicate a collection of paper origami cranes they are delivering to the memorial for Sadako Sasaki in Hiroshima Peace Park.
Sadako Sasaki died of Leukemia at the age of 12 as a result of radiation from the atomic bombing of Hiroshima. Before dying, Sadako folded 644 paper cranes after hearing the Japanese legend that folding 1000 cranes would cause the gods would grant her a wish.
Today school children all over Japan (not to mention the world) continue to fold paper cranes and send them to her monument in a universal wish for peace.
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Stephanie Ernst
Marji
Kelly G.
Deb
Mary Martin
thank you. I hate that reading something so sad and tragic is a breath of fresh air. last night I mentioned the anniversary at a large dinner out. 5 or 6 people sitting near by started making jokes about it. my friend got fed up and made a ver sarcastic comment that was an exaggeration of the jokes.
at that point people chastised HER insensitivity, and I had to explain that her comment was making a point about theirs.
It made me sick.
sorry to vent in the comments section.
again, thank you for this well written acknowledgment of these horrors.
Thank you for educating me, Stephanie. I have to admit that I had never taken time to think about this subject, or to feel for the victims. I see more and more clearly each day that challenging oppression, wherever it exists, is a never-ending journey for all of us, as we seek to learn the true motives of individuals and systems and the true facts about events, both ongoing and historical.
You quoted from The Christian Science Monitor in this post. Interestingly, a few minutes ago I was reading, and thinking about, this sentence by the Monitor’s founder: “A few immortal sentences, breathing the omnipotence of divine justice, have been potent to break despotic fetters and abolish the whipping-post and slave market; but oppression neither went down in blood, nor did the breath of freedom come from the cannon’s mouth. Love is the liberator” (Science and Health, p. 225).
This was written after the Civil War. No matter what the material weaponry, the message is the same. “Love is the liberator.”
Again, thank you for standing up for love and for truth and for life on this perfectly named “challenge oppression” site and in your everyday actions, Stephanie.
It’s so disturbing that we aren’t more focuses on the residual damage from Hiroshima… Or the thousands of land mines that still maim and murder to this day. For if we don’t deliberately look at these horrors – And own up to the sins that they are… How will we ever know to avoid them in the future?
Olivia… “Love is the liberator” – I will keep these words in the treasured arsenal of my learning experience. With enough knowledge we can never lose!
I suppose that Japan should have considered the military stature of the United States before committing horrendous crimes against humanity before and during WWII. Really, read a book about the Rape of Nanking before expecting the world to apologize to Japan when Japan can’t even take responsibility for its own military crimes.
When I see a nation invade a neighboring country, rape 60,000 women, burn the kids, bury the men alive, and leave the rest, buried to the waste, to be eaten alive by starved German Shepards (and furthermore disgust the Nazis, one of history’s most prolifically ruthless political parties), I won’t hesitate to drop an nuclear bomb that will make their grandchildren sorry.
Use your head. Being a liberal doesn’t mean you have to maintain the bleeding-heart stance on every social issue. Fight for equal rights. Fight against the poverty gap. Fuck Japan.
Actually, Japan has issued apologies for its previous generations’ war crimes, including one just in recent days.
“I won’t hesitate to drop an nuclear bomb that will make their grandchildren sorry.” Your flippancy about the mass suffering (that continues to this day) as a result of the atomic bombs — your flippancy about inflicting suffering on not only the innocent civilians of the 1940s but also the generations to come — is disgusting. And really, if you think entire nations of civilians and multiple generations should be held accountable and made to suffer for the sins of their governments and past generations, then I hope that idea gives you comfort when the victims of U.S. violence, past and present, decide that’s a good idea too.
You see, some of us manage to use both our heads and our hearts. Some of us are capable of feeling compassion even for those who just happen to be born in countries other than our own. Some of us are horrified by the unspeakable suffering of innocent beings regardless of their nationality, gender, race, species, etc.
Fuck Japan? Fuck you.
Huh, I didn’t realize that the 200,000 people who were killed in those blasts were ALL responsible for military war crimes. That the thousands who suffered years later from the results of radiation poisoning were all involved in raping and murdering other people. Color me surprised. And even if they were, I can’t say I’d be all too pleased with using horror to fight horror.
Please prepare yourself for this. Fighting for social justice issues generally means not blowing people up with nuclear weapons.
@Matt again: As I was trying my hardest to fall asleep, I found that I couldn’t because I still had this running through my head. First, I apologize if my reaction to you was knee-jerk. You left this comment at the end of a day in which I’d been faced multiple times with people’s indifference and flippancy and offensiveness toward others’ struggles and suffering. That I find much of your comment and attitude inexcusable is still true, but I could have handled this better (including how I signed off).
I want to make it clear, because I didn’t respond to it, that no one is arguing that the Japanese military didn’t do unspeakable things as well. The stories are sickening, the suffering unimaginable. No one could dispute that.
But the Japanese victims (mostly civilians) didn’t deserve what happened to them anymore than those in any other attacks or war crimes in any other countries ever deserve what happened/happens to them. They were children and parents and siblings and grandparents, farmers and teachers and doctors and mechanics and families and communities, just like everyone else. They did not deserve, in one horrible moment, to be incinerated or to have their faces melted away; they didn’t deserve to die agonizing deaths after initially surviving or to sit there helpless as their loved ones died horrendous deaths; they didn’t deserve to find their families suddenly gone, with only mangled bodies or, in many cases, only ashes left behind; they didn’t deserve to suddenly be thrust into mass chaos and destruction and death or to suffer for months and years and decades more as the poisonous aftermath continued. Read their stories, Matt, and then tell me how eager you’d be to do it again, to “make [even] their grandchildren sorry.” The bombs weren’t dropped on some abstract idea of Japan; they were dropped on living beings.
We should indeed be angry, heartsick, and sorrowful about what has happened (and is still happening) to so many in the world’s wars and war crimes, but we should feel those emotions about all the victims. As Marji said, “using horror to fight horror” isn’t a solution. And I hope you’ll rethink your take on this.
In lieu of semantics regarding wartime efforts, the ends justify the means. I equate this to Sherman burning down the south: war is an unfortunate reality, but one we must live and deal with. The reason that WWII is such a historically “popular” war, more so than its namesake’s predecessor, is because, in a world in which human are not inherently good nor evil, it’s a war where good and evil are continuously defined. From Germany’s genocide to Japan’s ruthless imperialistic aggression, the United States’ efforts were constantly validated on a moral grounds. Unlike wars such as the one in which we are currently entrenched, there were no underlying political or economic purposes: just a relatively liberal stance on what is right.
Historically speaking, how would you suggest that you stop a country as blindly nationalistic and ruthlessly disciplined as the Japan? Japan had been an imperial powerhouse in years for Asia and used Germany economic and military boom to capitalize and further their imperialistic prerogative and continue to bully the Asian nations and torture their citizens. In such a case, you must break the back of the nation. Japan was an unchecked, civilian-killing powerhouse and, if you believe that Japan wouldn’t have done the very same (and most likely worse) if given the same technology as America, you are sorely mistaken. The only way to stop a nation backed by generations of nationalism and ethnocentrism comparable to prehistoric tribal customs is crushing the nation in the quickest way possible.
Also, before you go investing so heavily in official governmental stances, talk to Japanese citizens or many of the public officials who privately or (check this past year’s newspapers) publicly maintaining Japan’s wartime position and denying that Nanjing even happened. Unlike my ancestors (as I am only four generations removed from Germany), who also committed atrocious war crimes, the Japanese never took responsibility for their actions, never apologized for their recent (or historic) crimes against neighboring nations.
Understand that I am generally regarded as politically liberal or left-standing (and very much so) on most political issues. I am often regarded as anti-American with my critical views of our nation’s stance on economy, poverty, sexuality, privacy, and race. However, I can contently consider A-bombing Japan as one of our nation’s most bittersweet but proud moments. Japan was not a country suddenly hijacked by political philosophy (as was Germany largely), it was a country rooted by hundreds of years of imperialistic mentality.
Lastly, speaking again as what would be considered a fellow liberal, your comparison of WWII Japan to modern America only displays your historical ignorance. The United States recent war efforts are debatable, Japan’s were inexcusable. Is war ever excusable? That’s another discussion. But, can it be politically, philosophically, or internationally justified? Our country’s actions can be; Japan’s cannot.
First, a hint, Mark/Matt: If you don’t want to attach your real name to comments celebrating the vaporizing, poisoning, and maiming of civilian children and the suffering of their children and grandchildren, and you decide to comment on a blog using a fake name, fake e-mail address, etc., you may want to at least pick a name and stick with it.
I’m not going to get into it with you over the merits of war in general or any wars in specific. I’m not going to respond to your baiting comments about my “ignorance.” I’m not going to give you a pat on the back for your self-described liberal stances. I’m not going to engage you on whether dropping the bombs was justified. (And oh, I’d love to comment on “civilian-killing powerhouses,” but I won’t.)
Whether we can have empathy for hundreds of thousands of innocent victims is not reliant on any of this. That you remain “proud” rather than saddened over the use a weapon of mass destruction to obliterate and destroy the lives or health of hundreds of thousands of people, from infants to the elderly, whose only “crime” was being born Japanese, is still disgusting, regardless of any other factors or facts.
It’s possible to be understanding of or in agreement with the decision to drop the bombs and still be regretful that it happened or still see in retrospect how it may not have been right — and, either way, still feel empathy and sadness about all those lives lost or broken apart. Not agreeing with me and others on the wrongness of the bombs doesn’t require you to be cold and callous and flippant about the victims — or about the possibility of dropping another atomic bomb on another population of innocents.
Again, we didn’t kill an abstract idea of “Japan” or a population of murderous sociopaths. We killed mostly innocent everyday people just like us, just like our own kids and parents and grandparents and friends, and if you can’t feel compassion or empathy for them just because they happened to live in Japan, again, that’s disgusting.
I’m not engaging you on this anymore. Please take your indifference elsewhere.