At Hiroshima Ceremony, a First for a U.S. Envoy
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Avnish Jolly
Aug 6, 2010, 11:50:18 PM8/6/10
to SAFE - Social Action Foundation for Equity
At Hiroshima Ceremony, a First for a U.S. Envoy
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/07/world/asia/07japan.html?_r=1&src=me
Kyodo/Reuters
Giving prayer after placing paper lanterns in the Motoyasu River on
the 65th anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima.
By MARTIN FACKLER
Published: August 6, 2010
HIROSHIMA, Japan — With the mournful gong of a Buddhist temple bell
and the release of a flock of doves, a crowd of 55,000 on Friday
solemnly marked the moment 65 years ago when the world’s first atomic
attack incinerated this city under a towering mushroom cloud.
For first time, a representative of the United States, Ambassador John
V. Roos, participated in the annual ceremony, raising hopes here of a
visit soon by a more prominent guest, President Obama, who is
scheduled to be in Japan in November.
Mr. Obama has become a popular figure here since delivering a speech
last year in Prague calling for the elimination of nuclear weapons.
The mayor and other residents of Hiroshima have repeatedly invited him
to come to their city, which — along with Nagasaki — is one of the
world’s most recognized symbols of the horrors of nuclear war.
Until Friday, American officials had always skipped the annual
ceremony, fearing their presence would renew the debate over whether
the United States should apologize for the World War II bombings,
which together killed more than 200,000 people in explosions so
intense that many victims were vaporized, leaving only ghostly shadows
on walls, while others died in agony from burns and radiation
sickness.
Such a debate would probably be politically divisive in the United
States and could even drive a wedge between America and Japan, one of
Washington’s closest allies. American officials have long defended the
bombings as having shortened the war and avoided an invasion, which
they say would have cost untold thousands of American and Japanese
lives. But many Japanese see the attacks as the epitome of the
indiscriminate slaughter of modern warfare, and a principal reason for
Japan’s postwar pacifism.
In interviews this week, political leaders here, including aging
survivors of the bombing, sought to allay such concerns, saying they
had no intention of asking the president to apologize. Instead, they
said they would feel some measure of solace if a visit to their city
could help Mr. Obama realize his vision of a denuclearized world.
“There is no point in apologizing now, after 65 years,” said Akihiro
Takahashi, 79, the former head of the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum
and a bombing survivor. “We want President Obama to see with his own
eyes what really happened here. This will give him stronger willpower
to eliminate nuclear weapons.”
Calls for Mr. Obama to visit Hiroshima and Nagasaki have spread in
Japan not only since his Prague speech but also after he won the 2009
Nobel Peace Prize. Speculation has focused on his November visit,
which will coincide with a gathering here of other Nobel Peace
laureates.
During a visit to Washington in January, Mayor Tadatoshi Akiba of
Hiroshima extended an invitation to Mr. Obama. In a speech on Friday
at the ceremony, Mr. Akiba praised the president’s “powerful
influence” in pushing for nuclear disarmament.
A new sense of hope that the world’s nuclear powers, and particularly
the United States, may finally share a desire to rid the world of
nuclear weapons seems to have permeated this city. In front of City
Hall, a large sign proclaimed Hiroshima to be part of an
“Obamajority.”
While some Japanese still consider the bombings a war crime,
mainstream opinion appears to be more complex, largely out of
recognition of Japan’s militaristic past. In interviews with more than
two dozen Japanese who visited the Hiroshima Peace Memorial this week,
only one said with any conviction that the United States should
apologize.
Their views largely echoed the message of the memorial, which
sidesteps the issue of responsibility and presents Hiroshima as a
tragic warning to all against the use of nuclear weapons.
Younger Japanese said that while they were appalled by the museum’s
graphic depictions of individual suffering, they did not view
Hiroshima as an atrocity on the same moral level as the Holocaust,
because the Japanese were not solely victims.
“Japan has its past, too, including Pearl Harbor,” said Akeo Fuji, 50.
“This is not about hating the United States, but about hating nuclear
war.”
Inatomi Takashi, 27, of Nagasaki, said, “We became prosperous because
of America, so we don’t see America darkly.”
Historians say such sentiments are widely, if quietly, shared in
Japan. They say the moral ambiguity is one reason for an almost total
lack of hostility toward Americans in Hiroshima, a city of about 1.1
million in the shadow of forested mountains.
Yet, this is a city that remains intensely aware of its historical
significance.
When it was being rebuilt, Hiroshima set aside a large portion of its
former center as a peace park, including the Atomic Bomb Dome — the
skeletal steel and concrete remains of an industrial exhibition hall
that was left by the blast.
The dome served as an eerie backdrop for the ceremony on Friday. While
Mr. Roos, the American ambassador, did not speak, he seemed to attract
more attention than other guests, including the United Nations
secretary general, Ban Ki-moon, who also attended for the first time.
Mr. Ban echoed the call for the elimination of nuclear weapons, saying
it was time to move from “ground zero to global zero.”
“For many of you,” he said, “that day endures as vivid as the white
light that seared the sky, as dark as the black rain that followed.”
In a statement, the United States Embassy said that Mr. Roos’s visit
had reflected “a common goal of advancing President Obama’s vision of
a world without nuclear weapons.”
Not everyone welcomed the ambassador. A few blocks from the ceremony,
at an impromptu alternative memorial, leftist groups demanded an
apology from the United States and the expulsion of its military bases
in Japan. Still, many said they would appreciate a visit by Mr. Obama,
even without an apology.
“I want President Obama to apologize,” said Tadashi Takahashi, 84, a
survivor who became an antiwar advocate. “But even more, I want what
he wants — a world without nuclear weapons.”
Experts here said that a healthy dialogue, instead of dividing the two
nations, could bring them closer together. They said that many
Japanese did not necessarily deny that the bombs had hastened the
war’s end but that they felt that Americans did not appreciate the
human cost.
“Japan and the United States are not so far apart,” said Kazumi
Mizumoto, a professor at Hiroshima City University. “Maybe they should
offer a joint apology of all the terrible things that happened in that
war.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/07/world/asia/07japan.html?_r=1&src=me
Kyodo/Reuters
Giving prayer after placing paper lanterns in the Motoyasu River on
the 65th anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima.
By MARTIN FACKLER
Published: August 6, 2010
HIROSHIMA, Japan — With the mournful gong of a Buddhist temple bell
and the release of a flock of doves, a crowd of 55,000 on Friday
solemnly marked the moment 65 years ago when the world’s first atomic
attack incinerated this city under a towering mushroom cloud.
For first time, a representative of the United States, Ambassador John
V. Roos, participated in the annual ceremony, raising hopes here of a
visit soon by a more prominent guest, President Obama, who is
scheduled to be in Japan in November.
Mr. Obama has become a popular figure here since delivering a speech
last year in Prague calling for the elimination of nuclear weapons.
The mayor and other residents of Hiroshima have repeatedly invited him
to come to their city, which — along with Nagasaki — is one of the
world’s most recognized symbols of the horrors of nuclear war.
Until Friday, American officials had always skipped the annual
ceremony, fearing their presence would renew the debate over whether
the United States should apologize for the World War II bombings,
which together killed more than 200,000 people in explosions so
intense that many victims were vaporized, leaving only ghostly shadows
on walls, while others died in agony from burns and radiation
sickness.
Such a debate would probably be politically divisive in the United
States and could even drive a wedge between America and Japan, one of
Washington’s closest allies. American officials have long defended the
bombings as having shortened the war and avoided an invasion, which
they say would have cost untold thousands of American and Japanese
lives. But many Japanese see the attacks as the epitome of the
indiscriminate slaughter of modern warfare, and a principal reason for
Japan’s postwar pacifism.
In interviews this week, political leaders here, including aging
survivors of the bombing, sought to allay such concerns, saying they
had no intention of asking the president to apologize. Instead, they
said they would feel some measure of solace if a visit to their city
could help Mr. Obama realize his vision of a denuclearized world.
“There is no point in apologizing now, after 65 years,” said Akihiro
Takahashi, 79, the former head of the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum
and a bombing survivor. “We want President Obama to see with his own
eyes what really happened here. This will give him stronger willpower
to eliminate nuclear weapons.”
Calls for Mr. Obama to visit Hiroshima and Nagasaki have spread in
Japan not only since his Prague speech but also after he won the 2009
Nobel Peace Prize. Speculation has focused on his November visit,
which will coincide with a gathering here of other Nobel Peace
laureates.
During a visit to Washington in January, Mayor Tadatoshi Akiba of
Hiroshima extended an invitation to Mr. Obama. In a speech on Friday
at the ceremony, Mr. Akiba praised the president’s “powerful
influence” in pushing for nuclear disarmament.
A new sense of hope that the world’s nuclear powers, and particularly
the United States, may finally share a desire to rid the world of
nuclear weapons seems to have permeated this city. In front of City
Hall, a large sign proclaimed Hiroshima to be part of an
“Obamajority.”
While some Japanese still consider the bombings a war crime,
mainstream opinion appears to be more complex, largely out of
recognition of Japan’s militaristic past. In interviews with more than
two dozen Japanese who visited the Hiroshima Peace Memorial this week,
only one said with any conviction that the United States should
apologize.
Their views largely echoed the message of the memorial, which
sidesteps the issue of responsibility and presents Hiroshima as a
tragic warning to all against the use of nuclear weapons.
Younger Japanese said that while they were appalled by the museum’s
graphic depictions of individual suffering, they did not view
Hiroshima as an atrocity on the same moral level as the Holocaust,
because the Japanese were not solely victims.
“Japan has its past, too, including Pearl Harbor,” said Akeo Fuji, 50.
“This is not about hating the United States, but about hating nuclear
war.”
Inatomi Takashi, 27, of Nagasaki, said, “We became prosperous because
of America, so we don’t see America darkly.”
Historians say such sentiments are widely, if quietly, shared in
Japan. They say the moral ambiguity is one reason for an almost total
lack of hostility toward Americans in Hiroshima, a city of about 1.1
million in the shadow of forested mountains.
Yet, this is a city that remains intensely aware of its historical
significance.
When it was being rebuilt, Hiroshima set aside a large portion of its
former center as a peace park, including the Atomic Bomb Dome — the
skeletal steel and concrete remains of an industrial exhibition hall
that was left by the blast.
The dome served as an eerie backdrop for the ceremony on Friday. While
Mr. Roos, the American ambassador, did not speak, he seemed to attract
more attention than other guests, including the United Nations
secretary general, Ban Ki-moon, who also attended for the first time.
Mr. Ban echoed the call for the elimination of nuclear weapons, saying
it was time to move from “ground zero to global zero.”
“For many of you,” he said, “that day endures as vivid as the white
light that seared the sky, as dark as the black rain that followed.”
In a statement, the United States Embassy said that Mr. Roos’s visit
had reflected “a common goal of advancing President Obama’s vision of
a world without nuclear weapons.”
Not everyone welcomed the ambassador. A few blocks from the ceremony,
at an impromptu alternative memorial, leftist groups demanded an
apology from the United States and the expulsion of its military bases
in Japan. Still, many said they would appreciate a visit by Mr. Obama,
even without an apology.
“I want President Obama to apologize,” said Tadashi Takahashi, 84, a
survivor who became an antiwar advocate. “But even more, I want what
he wants — a world without nuclear weapons.”
Experts here said that a healthy dialogue, instead of dividing the two
nations, could bring them closer together. They said that many
Japanese did not necessarily deny that the bombs had hastened the
war’s end but that they felt that Americans did not appreciate the
human cost.
“Japan and the United States are not so far apart,” said Kazumi
Mizumoto, a professor at Hiroshima City University. “Maybe they should
offer a joint apology of all the terrible things that happened in that
war.”
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