Courage to Speak, Courage to Listen to.~For we shall not to repeat the evil~"Hiroshima 75Years"Dr.Soko DAY48/50

Talked After 75Years. It took 75Years.

My Aunt Nobuko said.

"When I talk about Hiroshima, it comes to my mind. The countless, bloated bodies floating in the river..."

Even now, at the age of 90, Nobuko still dreams of the sights of Hiroshima she had seen at the age of 15. She could rarely return to her hometown, because she recalls the memories she does not want to recall. Most of the A-bomb victims could have lived holding a deep post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) that would last forever.

Similarly, in other countries, many soldiers hold PTSD since they returned to home from the war. In the event of a wartime experience, they can clearly remember it as a flashback, and their daily life is painfully interfered.

Courage to listen to

Listening to war experiences is also painful. As I read the materials on the atomic bomb, I noticed that I was mentally down, especially early stage when I started my research.

It was over 10 years ago, but my aunt once tried to speak about the atomic bomb. She was asked by an elementary school in the neighborhood to talk about her experiences with the atomic bombing. "For the children," she started to talk to the teachers about what she saw. After hearing her talk, young teachers requested to Nobuko.

"Please don't talk too much about the tragic part of the story. Don't talk about a part of tied-up American soldiers, it is complicated for children"

Nobuko said she had been very sad to hear that.

"I can't do that. I can't talk. I can't control the memory that overflows my heart. If I can't say what I want to talk about, it's a lie. I can't do that. So, I refused to talk"

The action talking about the war experience revokes the shocked memory and pain again. 

Therefore, the listener needs to have the courage to take it firmly and the readiness to take it.

May being a victim and also a perpetrator

The Pacific War began when Japan attacked Pearl Harbor in the early hours of December 8, 1941.

Unfortunately, my country was damaged by the atomic bomb, and at the same time has a history of making a surprise attack at Pearl Harbor and hurting Americans.

This fact that a home country was an assailant is very painful to the descendants of the nation, even if I had not done it and my ancestors had done it. 

The listener needs courage.

The listener need to be ready to take it.

But I think that ashamed of the past history, as if you had done it, is an unnecessary feeling.

Emotionally thinking is needless.

An objective and scientific point of view is necessary.

From an objective point of view, I think it is important to think by individual like" I should have done this way in the past", "I think the people should have done this way". To think, and to have own idea is essential.

When people of any country engage in a war, they have the side of the victim, but also the side of the perpetrator. This is true not only for people in defeated countries, but also for people in won countries. Even if there are "winning countries" and "losing countries," there are no "winning people."

I think we humans must not fight against other humans in a war that will hurt the human hearts. I also think that we should not force soldiers in our country to take actions that hurt their own hearts.

The courage to learn the past is more important than the apology of the past

Regarding the past conflicts decades ago, I personally think, it does not mean very much to let the contemporary people to apologize to the people of the present age in other countries. I think that the meaning of apologizing to the victims or the families left behind is essentially different from that.

Rather, it is more important to discuss how humankind should go in order not to hurt people with nuclear weapons in the future. I think that is also the job we live in today.

For we shall not to repeat the evil

If some people think it makes sense to apologize to the people who live in the present for the mistakes of the past decades ago, it can lead to artificial alteration of the past history. Modern people may be politically manipulated as a political card of apology.

Nowadays, I think it is necessary to objectively consider the past history scientifically so that it will not lead to war, and to firmly consider the past experience in order to make no mistakes again.