Hiroshima : 70 Years After the A-bombing

by Yumi Kanazaki and Keiichiro Yamamoto, Staff Writers

There is new momentum in the international community for the abolition of nuclear weapons and the severely inhumane consequences they produce. In the United States, however, public opinion supporting the past use of the atomic bombs remains strong. How can the voices of Hiroshima and Nagasaki be heard? The Chugoku Shimbun interviewed John Dower, professor emeritus at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the United States. Below are excerpts of Dr. Dower’s thoughts.

Recognition of history

The Pearl Harbor attack and the Bataan Death March. These are the images Americans hold of World War II. They’re quite different from the images held by the Japanese. In the United States, people believe that the atomic bombings ended the war quickly and saved many American lives. They feel that the war against Japan was a war won after enormous sacrifices had been made.

Human beings often distort and shape their memories to suit their convenience. Governments and people convey these “constructed memories” as their “history.” The United States has fought many wars that it couldn’t win, in Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan. The war against Japan must be told as one of the few glorious victories in its history.

Since the 1960s, however, documents that were classified during the war have been declassified one after another, and the decision-making process involving the use of the atomic bombs has been partially disclosed. It has been said that the atomic bombings were carried out to end the war, but it is now known that one of the contributing factors was the desire to intimidate the Soviet Union with the power of the atomic bombs. The United States said that many Americans would have been killed if they invaded Japan, so they had to use the atomic bombs, but it is now known that there was no such invasion planned until November.

These points contradict the prevailing memories of this constructed history. People look away from new facts that make them question their higaisha-ishiki (“victim consciousness”) and their sense of victory, and they exclude these facts from their memories.

Wall between Japan and the United States

This tendency was manifested about 20 years ago when the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum tried to exhibit the A-bomb damages together with the fuselage of Enola Gay, the plane which dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima. There was strong opposition from the veterans who had fought against Japanese forces. This is one example of how higaisha-ishiki easily leads to parochial nationalism and patriotism.

This is not limited to the United States. The Japanese government is also trying to rewrite the history of World War II to suit its convenience by taking on the issue of the so-called “comfort women” and by visiting Yasukuni Shrine. This is particularly obvious in Shinzo Abe’s administration. On the other hand, the anti-war, anti-nuclear peace movement has lost its strength and is unable to stop politicians from taking rash actions. Japan experienced the atomic bombings and the accident at the Fukushima No. 1 (Daiichi) nuclear power plant. Still, Japan can’t stop the nation’s nuclear plants from being restarted. I’m deeply concerned.

Affirming wars fought in the past entails glorifying the war dead as brave men. Without hiding how cruel the war was, Japan can’t become a “normal country” that can exercise the right to collective self-defense. Japan is appealing the tragedy of the atomic bombings and the abolition of nuclear weapons while beautifying the war. In this way, Japan isn’t convincing to the United States and the international community.

People must overcome their higaisha-ishiki and not simply look at the damages they suffered but also at what they did as aggressors. We must face each other and see beyond our own perspectives.

Mutual understanding

The holocaust by Nazi Germany, the American and British bombing of Dresden in Germany, Japan’s war responsibility in the Nanjing massacre and other atrocities, the Siberian labor camp by the former Soviet Union, the Cultural Revolution in China, in which many people were purged... I would like the disasters caused by the atomic bombings to be seen in the bigger picture of history, together with all the horrors of war that have threatened people’s lives.

In World War I, war came to be fought in a completely different way. Not just military facilities but whole cities were burned down in air raids, and innocent citizens were indiscriminately killed. A psychological war that shocked and terrified civilians is no different from today’s terrorist attacks.

The escalation of mass killings by air raids led to the development of atomic bombs to kill people more efficiently. The atomic bombings did not occur by themselves. They were an extension of other air raids including the Great Tokyo Air Raid, in which about 100,000 people were killed. This tendency has continued since the end of World War II. We must look at this in order to understand the nature of the inhumane damage of war.

In the United States, people are not interested in the damage that was inflicted on the actual people under the mushroom cloud. It is difficult but not impossible to change this. For example, pictures have been drawn by the survivors of the atomic bombings, which NHK began to collect in the 1970s. I have actively introduced these pictures in my lectures and helped to publish a book about them in the United States.

Through the eyes of the survivors, we can see the names and faces of individual people, not just a set of numbers such as 140,000 victims in Hiroshima and 70,000 in Nagasaki. With their visual power, the pictures convey the pains of the victims to the viewer. I have had a strong response from my students.

The disasters caused by the atomic bombings were atrocious, and they are not just about what happened in the past. The terror of nuclear weapons today is on an even greater scale than that of Hiroshima or Nagasaki. The nuclear powers still cling to their nuclear weapons. Therefore, it is particularly meaningful to demand that they look at what these weapons do, from the perspectives of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

The A-bomb experiences must be conveyed by as many survivors as possible. Young people must make efforts to convey their messages. Time is limited. These actions will become increasingly important. In doing so, I want them to see beyond their own sufferings.

Profile

John Dower
John Dower was born in 1938 in the U.S. state of Rhode Island. He obtained his Ph.D. from Harvard University. From 1962 to 1965, he worked at a junior college in Kanazawa and at a publisher in Tokyo. After teaching at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and at other institutions as a professor, he became a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 1991. In 2010, he became professor emeritus at MIT. He has written many books including Embracing Defeat: Japan in the Wake of World War II and War Without Mercy: Race and Power in the Pacific War. He recently published Ways of Forgetting, Ways of Remembering: Japan in the Modern World.

Keywords

Pearl Harbor attack
On December 7, 1941 (December 8 in Japan), Japanese forces attacked the U.S. base and fleet in Pearl Harbor, located in Oahu, Hawaii. This sparked the start of war between Japan and the United States. It is estimated that about 2,400 U.S. soldiers and civilians and about 60 Japanese soldiers died. It has been called a surprise attack and a violation of international law.

Bataan Death March
In April 1942, Japanese forces occupied Luzon in the Philippines and captured many U.S. soldiers. These prisoners of war were forced to walk a great distance under severe conditions. About 20,000 prisoners reportedly died from hunger and infectious diseases. In the United States, the march is pointed to as an example of the cruelty of Japanese forces.

Enola Gay exhibition controversy
The Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum, in Washington D.C., was restoring the B-29 bomber that dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima and planned to exhibit its fuselage in 1995, the 50th year after the atomic bombings. This exhibition would have also shown materials borrowed from Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum and Nagasaki Atomic Bomb Museum to explain about the damages caused by the atomic bombings. However, there was an outcry from U.S. veterans, and the director of the museum was forced to resign. The exhibition was scaled back and displayed only the fuselage. The whole airplane has been on display since 2003 at the museum’s new annex in Virginia. There is no explanation of the death toll or other damages caused by the atomic bombings.

Bombing of Dresden
On February 13 and 14, 1945, before Nazi Germany surrendered unconditionally, American and British forces carried out indiscriminate bombing on eastern Dresden. This was one of the largest air raids in World War II, and most of Dresden was destroyed. During the era of East Germany, Dresden announced that about 35,000 people died in the city.

Pictures drawn by A-bomb Survivors
In 1974, a survivor donated a hand-drawn picture of the atomic bombing to the NHK Hiroshima Broadcasting Station, which prompted NHK to ask more survivors to draw pictures. A total of 2,225 pictures were collected by the following year. In 2002, the City of Hiroshima and the Chugoku Shimbun joined NHK, and 1,338 pictures drawn by A-bomb survivors were newly collected. Today, Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum holds about 5,000 drawings of the atomic bombing.

(Originally published on January 18, 2015)