Hiroshima Wants Your Peace Messages

The Yomiuri reports that Hiroshima is seeking peace messages written on post cards:

To commemorate the 65th anniversary of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima on Aug. 6, the Hiroshima Prefectural Art Museum and other bodies are requesting peace messages be sent to the old address of the A-Bomb Dome from early July.

Messages should be mailed to a special mailbox that will be placed in front of the A-Bomb Dome, a skeletal structure that survived the atomic blast and has been designated a World Heritage Site by UNESCO. The messages will be displayed at a special exhibition on the dome at the museum in August and September.

For more details, check out this English language information page.

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16 comments - What do you think? Posted by James - June 28, 2010 at 4:59 am

Categories: General Japan Tags:

Hamachiman

Oh boy, this one ain’t going to be pretty.

I expect a bit of world controversy and tons of hate mail and such being mailed to Hiroshima.

Are the people who thought of this, sure that this is what they want?

Perhaps the organizers of this only had intentions of promoting world peace knowing how devastating war can be. I might give them that.

But, inevitably, anytime Hiroshima is mentioned, all it does is rile people up. People will say, this is yet another example of how the Japanese are making themselves to be the victims. Past war deniers. And so on and so forth.
Ivanovsky

The atomic bombings over Japan was a clear case of war crime. Unfortunately, the only reason
the persons who ordered and carried out the bombings were not prosecuted was that Japan had
lost the war.

International laws(in effect at the time of the bombings) regarding war conduct clearly
spell out what is and isn’t acceptable.

Vonskippy

And what law (exactly) spells out that dropping the Atomic Bomb was illegal?

Also care to list the huge laundry list of war “laws” that Japan broke both at the beginning and throughout the war?

War is ugly business. Like betting – never place a bet (or start a war) you’re not sure you can win.
righteous

War crimes is irreverent as the true motives must be taught. The two bombings are a part of the American ‘war odyssey’, as the Government had concerns of The Soviet Union organising the growing final moves to compose a commodious and corporate influence in East Asia. In order to stop them from succeeding, the organiser General Leslie Groves urged J. Robert Oppenheimer and his team that they “must not lose a single day”; and this move will also provide a competitive place for The United States. When the bombs were dropped, the Soviets became intimidated of the American stronghold. But this may be apathetic, as the explosions had a beauty that could not be described.

It is on the course that Japanese felt compelled to attack the United States naval station to eradicate their presence in the Pacific, but the Americans were too clever as they enforced many trade and diplomatic problems to the Japanese Empire; as there is clear evidence that America wanted a war in the first place. They have been doing this for a long time!

http://billowykimono.blogspot.com/ Senor Science

Why yes, Japan would be so much better off today if the Soviet Union had gained a foothold on the home islands. Then the Japanese could be basking under the sun of Marxism and everyone would lead a carefree and happy existence sticking it to Roosevelt and Churchill!

“It is on the course that Japanese felt compelled to attack the United States naval station to eradicate their presence in the Pacific, but the Americans were too clever as they enforced many trade and diplomatic problems to the Japanese Empire; as there is clear evidence that America wanted a war in the first place. They have been doing this for a long time!”

So I take it the Japanese were complete Saints in the Second Sino-Japanese War and their increasingly hostile foreign policy to the ABCD powers was precedented by the Americans? Sounds like horse crap to me.

Also what evidence of “wanting war” exists? No, the US stationing more forces for the perceived threat of war with the Japanese or war plan orange count.

It doesn’t help that American-Japanese relations before the 1930′s and the rise of the militarists in the government with their fun little “incidents” (Mukden, the sinking of the Panay) were more or less cordial.

Will there be a day when crackpots stop blaming the United States for the outbreak of the Pacific War? ::Eye roll::

Lewis

“Why yes, Japan would be so much better off today if the Soviet Union had gained a foothold on the home islands.”

Just like in Germany, Vietnam, Yemen and Korea, we would have had a USSR-backed North Japan and a US-backed South Japan. The People’s Democratic Republic of Japan would have suffered abject poverty and massive human rights abuses, and the South would have been dragged down into economic turmoil by the eventual reunification (regardless of whether it was bought on by war or diplomacy). Japan’s rebirth as a major economic power would never have occurred, and in this imagined alternate history, the modern Japanese state would be a weaker, poorer and less advanced version of its actual self.

I’m not going to try to justify Hiroshima, but it’s interesting to consider that things could have gone even worse for the Japanese people in the long run.
http://billowykimono.blogspot.com/ Senor Science

Yup!

But to be honest, I don’t think a communist backed North Japan would of been as bad in terms of mass murders and repression as North Korea has been in history. I don’t know too much about the subject but it seems that the left in Japan is more ideologically focused than their North Korean counterparts who use Marxism as an excuse to go back to some primeval absolutist Korean state. But then again, with Uncle Joe calling the shot who knows.

There’s actually a Playstation 2 game that explores this scenario, but with obligatory diesel powered mecha.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ring_of_Red

Tony D

In before Japan set the precedence for ignoring international law, more lives would’ve been lost in a ground war, etc.
Rob A

There was no precedent for the Atomic Bomb being dropped. There was no ‘law’ or any provision for nuclear warfare yet in any treaty.

That said, it was a horrible mistake on the US’s part. Despite the fact that it contributed greatly to the end of the war, it cost far too many lives, and indiscriminately killed civilians and military personnel alike.

Show that we as a planet are beyond thinking in absolutes, and send a simple message of peace.

Yojimbo

Aaagh! Why can’t people simply see the devastating effects that the war had on all involved and look upon the Hiroshima landmark as a symbol of why wars should not happen? Casting blame and placing guilt only contradicts the message the memorial intends to send.

Vonskippy

“Casting blame and placing guilt only contradicts the message…”

I have an exceptionally hard time believing this would be the sentiment if Japan had won.

Yojimbo

Japan didn’t win. Stick to reality and maybe you’ll see things a bit more clearly.

Anders

The atomic bombing of Hiroshima had no obvious military purpose as to what buildings or part of the city were targeted- it did however have other strategic purposes. But seen as an isolated incident, it was a massive killing of civilians with no immidiate military or industrial target. I don´t know whether or not that be termed illegal or not within international law at the time (when there was no UN Charter), but it was definately not cool! There´s no doubt that the Japanese government during the war commited innumerable terrible atrocities like the Najing Massacre, the comfort women program, coercive drafting of colonial subjects, brutal colonial rule, terrifying domestic policing of its citizens, and chemical weapons experiments and so on. The govenment could and should take a much clearer stance on war responsibility), but should that suggest that the people of Hiroshima were NOT victims of war?! This is not an event organised by the Japanese state, but by the Peace Memorial Museum of Hiroshima (and therefore indirectly by the prefectural authorities) and the local branch of NHK- not an overarching Japanese authority that might speak on behalf of the state.

Should one of the most terrifying killings of civilians not be commemorated properly!? I fail to see why it should not. And I really fail to see any kind of apologetic effort when reading the official website.

LB

no immidiate military or industrial target

Apparently the headquarters of the 2nd General Army (responsible for the defense of southern Japan, which the US would have been invading had the bombings not worked out), Chugoku Regional Army, Army Marine Headquarters, shipyards, military depots stocked with supplies and the fact that Hiroshima was a major transportation hub do not add up to “immediate military or industrial targets”, then?

Anders

Well, it is true that those facilities were IN Hiroshima, but as far as I know the only one affected by the bombing were the Chugoku Military District Headquarters (if we exclude facilities that might have an indirect military value, like infrastructure, research facilities, warehouses and the like). The bomb was not dropped in what could be deemed an industrial area, or an area with a significantly high concentration of military facilitites. If my knowledge is lacking, please let me know. I have used this website as reference (it might not be all-inclusive, though):

http://www.nhk.or.jp/hiroshima/hibakumap/e/spot/itiran.html

In any case, these facilities could easily have been destroyed by means of conventional bombing. The bombing of Japan were massive at the time, and American bombers had fairly easy access to Japan (that is not to suggest, that it was not dangerous- of course it was).

No matter what, I don´t see my basic argument to be countered. Many civilians were killed (completely out of proportion with the bomb´s effect on military facilities), and that itself makes the killed, their relatives, and the those affected by radioation victims of war, not simply “collateral damage” if you will.

I am Danish national, and I wouldn´t mind if, say, a museum in Munich, held a non-apologetic memorial of those killed as a result of the Allies carpet bombing.

Luis Lazaro Tijerina

SUZUKI, A YOUNG MAN WHOSE HANDS
WERE BURNED AWAY AT HIROSHIMA

They took my life away at Hiroshima.
Do not worry mother and father,
But forgive me for not always being a good son.
I know both of you worked hard from early dawn,
When the pale moon was still in the sky,
to the late hour when the first stars appeared.
I do not know how to excuse myself,
as my flesh is burnt, my face and arms are black.
I will die,
but I remain devoted to the sacrifices you made,
so that I could read my books.

My body will soon be dead,
as my country lies in ruins from war,
But I will always be with both of you, taking my meal
of rice and tea, while the autumn comes
with the chirping of bright crickets, and the forest sheds
its beautiful red and golden leaves.
“The atomic bomb that fell”, as I wrote to both of you
“had a terrifying power” as I penned it….
Now it is my turn to die.

Luis Lázaro Tijerina

Hiroshima Wants Your Peace Messages

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