Kakinoki James

I live fairly near Hiroshima. Earlier this month marked the 61st anniversary of the atomic bomb being dropped on Hiroshima and today is the anniversary of Japan's surrender. For me the issue of the nuking of Hiroshima is full of contradictory feelings and thoughts. I have lived in Japan for more than 3 years. I like the Japanese people and their culture. I have been to Hiroshima several times, I’ve been to the dome and museum there, and I had a student that was less than 2 KM from the epicenter of the explosion when it went off. I have walked down to the main river at low tide and seen many shards of broken pottery, which I was told was probably deposited in the river by the force of the explosion.
In school I was taught that Japan was the aggressor, they would not surrender, and General MacArthur estimated US losses to be over 1,000,000 if we invaded (might have been 10,000,000 he said), so that's why we bombed Hiroshima. Later I learned that Hiroshima was a military capital of sorts, being the HQ for several divisions (ones that committed many of the worst atrocities in Asia) and the navy base there was one of the major ports for departing troops. The islands around the city were used to make chemical weapons. The citizens’ homes were used to house Japanese troops before they were shipped out. Many citizens, including students at least as young as Jr. High age, were involved in making war materials such as torpedoes. Not quite a completely innocent city minding its own business. Then on a personal note, if America had invaded Japan they would have executed my great-grandfather who was a POW that had been captured in the Philippians.

# posted by Kakinoki James @ 11:53 AM