Hiroshima and the meaning of victimhood
This is a very good article that gets to both side of the morality concerning the nuclear attacks against Japan in 1945.
I especially noted the statement by Minoru Hataguchi:
The director of the Hiroshima museum, Minoru Hataguchi, says the museum exists as an appeal that nuclear weapons never be used again. He admitted that Japanese rarely talk about why the war happened or about Japanese atrocities. But he also said those atrocities. But he also said those events took place before the atomic blast in this western Japanese city and thus are beyond the museum's scope.
"Do we need to explain everything, even Pearl Harbor?" he asked."We have to draw the line somewhere."
Yes and that line ought to be determined by the question "What Caused This"?
The answers: Nationalism, the quest for empire, delusions of racial superiority, thinking the Emperor is a god, brutalizing China, attacking Pearl Harbor, the treatment of Allied prisoners and the willingness of Japanese citizens to take up arms and the unwillingnes to surrender in the face of certain defeat.
I will say that was then and this is now. The Japanese have done what few cultures can do and are to be admired for their rejection of war and the gem of a society and world power they have built. But their greatness will become complete when they can honestly teach their children the truth.
Bataan
Japanese Occupation Brutality
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