To commemorate the dreadful anniversary, I translated a poem by Danish pacifist Halfdan Rasmussen. (Sorry, I had to put in a link below, as the image won't appear here in the comment for some reason.)
I wonder what poems the Japanese themselves have written to process Hiroshima and Nagasaki?
Thank you so much! I love Japanese culture, but know only a few isolated words and phrases of the language, so am dependent on translations to get even a glimpse of poetry.
This is truly an age of the world when we pave over the dead and walk along.
Timely reflection for our age of increasing anxiety, which remains no less nuclear than before and is likely to become increasingly so in the future. Ironically or cruelly, the fourth and final (supposedly weaker) reason offered, that the use of these weapons set a dangerous precedent, only strengthens with time. As the urgency of the debates for and against using these weapons to end the war with Japan almost a century ago fade deeper into the past along with the political circumstances that fueled them, the precedent remains real and present with us today.
I think of this often.
As an American who has lived in Japan, got a masters in East-Asian studies focused on Japan, and served as a political-military officer at the US Embassy in Japan, I sometimes fear that that precedent may come back to haunt us some day. Some leader, American or other, demagogic or not, may invoke that precedent, drawing a decisive (but not necessarily correct) lesson from history to justify their future use, claiming (for example) that mutually assured destruction no longer applies. Given their vastly multiplied destructive power, the consequences will plainly dwarf the horror that engulfed Hiroshima and Nagasaki. (I don't know why, perhaps it's the power of association, but when I visited both cities in the late 80s, I was stunned by just how beautiful they were).
Very compelling and disturbing review, building out some of the concrete analytical reasons for continued, if not expanding concern about the nuclear threat moving forward. The final point, about lines of communication and diplomacy, resonates with me. During the Cuban Missile crisis (as you probably know better than I), relations between Khrushchev and Kennedy were fraught. Still, Kennedy was able to keep his wits about him (as described in Thinking in Time...) by putting himself in Krushchev's shoes and imagining how he (Krushschev) was thinking about it, step by step. That turned out to be critical. Incidentally, a fellow retired foreign service officer friend caught a note recently published in Pravda (apparently still exists) about Putin contemplating putting up missiles in Cuba or Venezuela. Finally, since I note your close association with Japan, I can't help but imagine that Japan and South Korea are both legitimately worried about US intentions and (equally legitimately) contemplating relaunching their nuclear capability for military purposes. Could probably be done overnight.
I believe there is a typo - word missing - in this sentence " He might have died, had his auntie dragged him free of the debris." I think a NOT was intended after AUNTIE.
Thank you for this. We have to remember.
To commemorate the dreadful anniversary, I translated a poem by Danish pacifist Halfdan Rasmussen. (Sorry, I had to put in a link below, as the image won't appear here in the comment for some reason.)
I wonder what poems the Japanese themselves have written to process Hiroshima and Nagasaki?
https://substack.com/home/post/p-169661876
Thank you for the link and a great question, about poetry remembering the atomic bombings.
Here's one, by Shigemoto Yasuhiko, who witnessed the aftermath in Hiroshima when he was 15 years old:
Hiroshima Day -
I believe there must be bones
Under the paved street.
Thank you so much! I love Japanese culture, but know only a few isolated words and phrases of the language, so am dependent on translations to get even a glimpse of poetry.
This is truly an age of the world when we pave over the dead and walk along.
Timely reflection for our age of increasing anxiety, which remains no less nuclear than before and is likely to become increasingly so in the future. Ironically or cruelly, the fourth and final (supposedly weaker) reason offered, that the use of these weapons set a dangerous precedent, only strengthens with time. As the urgency of the debates for and against using these weapons to end the war with Japan almost a century ago fade deeper into the past along with the political circumstances that fueled them, the precedent remains real and present with us today.
I think of this often.
As an American who has lived in Japan, got a masters in East-Asian studies focused on Japan, and served as a political-military officer at the US Embassy in Japan, I sometimes fear that that precedent may come back to haunt us some day. Some leader, American or other, demagogic or not, may invoke that precedent, drawing a decisive (but not necessarily correct) lesson from history to justify their future use, claiming (for example) that mutually assured destruction no longer applies. Given their vastly multiplied destructive power, the consequences will plainly dwarf the horror that engulfed Hiroshima and Nagasaki. (I don't know why, perhaps it's the power of association, but when I visited both cities in the late 80s, I was stunned by just how beautiful they were).
Thanks for posting.
I read a fairly terrifying book about this a few months back: https://engelsbergideas.com/reviews/the-wages-of-a-nuclear-war/
Very compelling and disturbing review, building out some of the concrete analytical reasons for continued, if not expanding concern about the nuclear threat moving forward. The final point, about lines of communication and diplomacy, resonates with me. During the Cuban Missile crisis (as you probably know better than I), relations between Khrushchev and Kennedy were fraught. Still, Kennedy was able to keep his wits about him (as described in Thinking in Time...) by putting himself in Krushchev's shoes and imagining how he (Krushschev) was thinking about it, step by step. That turned out to be critical. Incidentally, a fellow retired foreign service officer friend caught a note recently published in Pravda (apparently still exists) about Putin contemplating putting up missiles in Cuba or Venezuela. Finally, since I note your close association with Japan, I can't help but imagine that Japan and South Korea are both legitimately worried about US intentions and (equally legitimately) contemplating relaunching their nuclear capability for military purposes. Could probably be done overnight.
I believe there is a typo - word missing - in this sentence " He might have died, had his auntie dragged him free of the debris." I think a NOT was intended after AUNTIE.
Thanks for spotting that!
thx