Teaching Japanese Children Not to Love the Bomb

[DaShi]

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/05/29/in...APA.html?8hpib

Teaching Youth to Start Worrying About the Bomb
By HOWARD W. FRENCH


IROSHIMA, Japan — After 18 years of almost daily lectures about surviving the atomic bomb dropped here on Aug. 6, 1945, Setsuko Iwamoto's stories to classrooms full of students have a finely limned quality about them, as smooth as pebbles in a creek.

There is no straining for melodrama as the 71-year-old woman recounts how her skin seemed to melt and pour off her arms after the flash, or how whatever scraps of cloth that could be found were used by people to protect themselves from the black rain that fell afterward.

Stories of survival do not get much more compelling. But Ms. Iwamoto worries now, with Japan inching toward rearmament, that the spirit of Hiroshima and the moral power of her story are fading.

Each year, she said, the stares of the students she faces from the podium grow blanker, just as their questions about the atomic bombing grow more stilted, appearing rehearsed rather than heartfelt.

"Just a few years ago, most schoolteachers had direct memories of the war," said Ms. Iwamoto, who said she was found to have cancer last year but appeared hale. "That's not the case at all anymore, though, and I wonder once this kind of lecture ends, how effectively the experience of war is taught.

"In my day we had trouble just surviving every day, whereas these days everyone in Japan is comfortable," Ms. Iwamoto added. "Children learn about war through manga [comic books] and think it is kind of cool. They have no particular sensation of Japan's defeat."

The profound shock of the Hiroshima bombing, and that of Nagasaki three days later, is widely credited not only with ending World War II, but with creating a strong emotional underpinning to Japan's official creed of nonviolence, consecrated in an American-drafted Constitution that faces increasingly strident calls for revision.

Fears about Japan becoming increasingly blasé about remembering the atomic bombings, though, are not limited to the survivors, or hibakusha, as they are known here.

Hiroshima's entire image and economy are linked to the horrendous final days of World War II, and city officials say visits by Japanese travelers are locked in a serious, long-term decline, broken only by a modest spike since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in the United States.

Commissions have been formed to reverse the trend. A museum on the grounds of the Peace Park, near ground zero, has been expanded and modernized. In the hope of popularizing visits here, even a manga has been created — to celebrate the memory of Sadako Sasaki, a 12-year-old who died of blood cancer years after the bombing.

"We are faced with the challenge of conveying this experience to the next generations," said Noriyuki Masuda, associate director of the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Association. "At some point we realized that what we had was a crisis involving young people's consciousness. We have been facing a change in attitudes and a decline of interest in Japan as a nation."

When Ms. Iwamoto completed her one-hour presentation to a lecture hall full of sixth graders who had come to Hiroshima on a field trip, five minutes were left for what was billed as a question and answer session.

In lieu of a question, a young girl who appeared to have been chosen for her excellence in study walked nervously to the microphone and read a brief speech in the name of her class. "Why must there be war?" she said flatly, ending her comments with a wish for the lecturer's good health.

Asked if visits at a slightly older age might favor deeper thought, not to mention real questions, the girl's teacher, Keiko Tokunaga, demurred. "This is the age when children are just beginning to think about the world," she said, "and I think that it is the best time to introduce ideas like this. But this is just a start."

Out on the grand plaza of the Peace Park, where the famous atomic bomb dome sits, just a stone's throw across the Motoyasu River, one has trouble imagining that visits to the Hiroshima memorial grounds are in decline.

Over the course of a fine spring day, one group after another of uniformed students troops from the museum to the dome, typically laying wreaths and garlands of origami cranes by a statue of Miss Sasaki, the renowned 12-year-old bomb victim.

Foreign visitors, whose numbers have increased as those of Japanese have declined, are also constantly in evidence. This day, a group of volunteer greeters were excitedly awaiting the arrival of a group from Senegal, including the country's ambassador.

At the approach of an American journalist, a group of ninth graders from Tokyo was unfailingly polite, and even excited to be answering questions about their trip here. None had discussed the bombing, or Japan's long-fixed identity as a nation of peace, with their parents before coming.

Nor did they have many ideas of how the war began or why it ended amid mushroom clouds and hundreds of thousands of instant casualties. "This was kind of an experiment, because it was the first atomic bombing," said Eiichiro Hiraka, a 14-year-old with a dream of becoming a professional baseball player. "Hiroshima was the perfect size for that."

A classmate, Kaoru Iwasaki, said she had studied World War II the year before but did not remember much. "I'm sorry, but I can't tell you why the war started," she said. Asked the same question, her friend Chisato Kajitani declared that she was not very interested in the subject. "I've never really thought about that question before," she said.

The last few quotes are especially disturbing.

[JohnT]

Not as disturbing as this quote by the teacher:

"In my day we had trouble just surviving every day, whereas these days everyone in Japan is comfortable," Ms. Iwamoto added. "Children learn about war through manga [comic books] and think it is kind of cool. They have no particular sensation of Japan's defeat."

Why is it that people think it is ennobling to suffer?

[Arrian]

Nor did they have many ideas of how the war began or why it ended amid mushroom clouds and hundreds of thousands of instant casualties. "This was kind of an experiment, because it was the first atomic bombing," said Eiichiro Hiraka, a 14-year-old with a dream of becoming a professional baseball player. "Hiroshima was the perfect size for that."

A classmate, Kaoru Iwasaki, said she had studied World War II the year before but did not remember much. "I'm sorry, but I can't tell you why the war started," she said. Asked the same question, her friend Chisato Kajitani declared that she was not very interested in the subject. "I've never really thought about that question before," she said.

Ack!

By the way, please don't respond by telling me how US schoolchildren are even more ignorant. They probably are. But my reaction to ignorance of history (particularly such important, relatively recent history) is usually

-Arrian

[GePap]

Originally posted by JohnT
Why is it that people think it is ennobling to suffer?

Isn;t that an ancient notion? After all, what makes the hermit noble but his giving up of human comfort? Don;t christian believe man was redeemed through the suffering of Christ (a porxy ennobling through pain?)

Nietzsche has some good ideas on this, but I won;t threadjack more.

It is rather firghtening that Japanese kids know so little history: even US kids know more than that! The Japanese have done a horrible job of educating themselves about that war, and now even the "we were victims" half-myth is failing.

[JohnT]

"Isn't that an ancient notion?"

Doesn't make it any less ignorant or immoral.

[DaShi]

A true samarai would commit harakiri rather than live with the dishonor of being poor.

[GePap]

Originally posted by JohnT
"Isn't that an ancient notion?"

Doesn't make it any less ignorant or immoral.

I think the notion that suffering makes one better is very popular: why else are men who go into battle seen as "heroes", besides the point that we think becuase they risked danger, death and suffering somehow makes them more "worthy" than those that stay home?

We as a society do think suffering somehow makes you better, more knowledgeable, and so forth and so on.

[Az]

I think the notion that suffering makes one better is very popular: why else are men who go into battle seen as "heroes", besides the point that we think becuase they risked danger, death and suffering somehow makes them more "worthy" than those that stay home?

Not only because of the self-sacrifice, but self-sacrifice done for a good cause. Otherwise, the 9/11 bomber would be seen by everyone as heroes.

[N35t0r]

Originally posted by GePap

It is rather firghtening that Japanese kids know so little history: even US kids know more than that! The Japanese have done a horrible job of educating themselves about that war, and now even the "we were victims" half-myth is failing.

wait... don't make such broad generalizations, if you were to stop an verage US kid, (and these were 14-year-olds) then he probably couldn't tell you why the war started either (it did not start with japan bombing pearl harbor...)...



Besides, it's journalism... they won't mention that 40 out of 45 in that class knew all of it, they just like to stick out the fact that there some kids who didn't. (like the Nat. Geographic geography survey in which 1 out of every 10 US teenagers couldn't place the US on the map...)

[JohnT]

"(it did not start with japan bombing pearl harbor...)"

For America, it did. Are European kids taught that WW2 didn't end until September, 1945 or do y'all think the war ended in late May?

[Arrian]

(like the Nat. Geographic geography survey in which 1 out of every 10 US teenagers couldn't place the US on the map...)

IIRC, it was a lot more than just 1 in 10.

And I have no illusions about the ignorance of Americans when it comes to history. I know intelligent, successful people who know ****all about WWII.

-Arrian

[gunkulator]

WWII? We Americans can't even agree on the causes of our own Civil War, despite the intervening 140+ years.

JohnT is right, though. How much do Euros learn about the rape of Nanking, the Bataan Death March or Iwo Jima?

Sad thing is, everyone wants to be the victim. War is always the fault of the other guy.

[Menlas]

Originally posted by JohnT
"(it did not start with japan bombing pearl harbor...)"

For America, it did. Are European kids taught that WW2 didn't end until September, 1945 or do y'all think the war ended in late May?

Personnaly, I've always been taught that WW2 ended in August or September 1945 (can't remember the exact day now).
However, our national day for WW2 end is May the 8, so I suppose many people here think it ended in May.

[Arrian]

WWII? We Americans can't even agree on the causes of our own Civil War, despite the intervening 140+ years.

It's one thing to disagree about the causes of a war. It's another not to have a vaguest clue as to what the causes of a war might be, and not caring.

-Arrian

[DanS]

Personally, this doesn't disturb me. Is there a museum for the firebombing of Tokyo, and is it given more emphasis in schools than Hiroshima/Nagasaki, as it should be?

[N35t0r]

Originally posted by JohnT
"(it did not start with japan bombing pearl harbor...)"

For America, it did. Are European kids taught that WW2 didn't end until September, 1945 or do y'all think the war ended in late May?

America entered the war then, but the war was (oficially) started with Hitler's invasion of Poland.

I know the war didn't end in may... i also know that ground offensives didn't end in may either.... And i'm not European...

[Oerdin]

Actually, I'd say the real fighting started before Poland with the Japanese invation of Manchura and the Italian invasion of Ethiopia. It continued through the Japanese invasion of China and the Spanish Civil war where all the major powers had proxi forces.

Poland was just the next domino to fall.

[N35t0r]

besides, it is much more justifiable (sp?) to claim the latter than the former... you are talking of 2 years and the occupation of France, the low countries, the balkans, poland.... vs. a few months and some bombs...

besides, i'd say that there aren't many europeans who forget the end of the war in the pacific... with the two bombs and all....



Going back to this thread's original topic, it is expected that Japanese boys will start to care less about the bomb as time goes by.... the same happens here with the military dictatorship, and probably the same will happen in the us with the sept. 11 attacks.... It's a great thing, collective memory, and its impressive capacity to forget certain things...

[MichaeltheGreat]

Originally posted by JohnT
Not as disturbing as this quote by the teacher:

"In my day we had trouble just surviving every day, whereas these days everyone in Japan is comfortable," Ms. Iwamoto added. "Children learn about war through manga [comic books] and think it is kind of cool. They have no particular sensation of Japan's defeat."

Why is it that people think it is ennobling to suffer?

It's not ennobling to suffer. It is useful to understand why that suffering occurred, particularly for a society with much of it's history based on an ethnocentric, stratified, elitist warrior culture where everyone knew their place and where questioning authority is still largely an alien concept.

[N35t0r]

Oerdin, that's why i put 'officially'

going that way, you could go back to the origin of mankind.... History is all Cause->Effect (or mostly)... Big artificial separators are needed for the sake of simplicity....

[MichaeltheGreat]

Originally posted by DanS
Personally, this doesn't disturb me. Is there a museum for the firebombing of Tokyo, and is it given more emphasis in schools than Hiroshima/Nagasaki, as it should be?

There were more fatalities (short term), but no long term effects, and fires in old Japanese cities, earthquakes, etc., were nasty affairs.

It wasn't that interesting, though, because nobody nowadays has the ability to send 3,000 bombers and escort aircraft to set 50,000 little fires and run amok. Mass killing nowadays is much more likely to be done by nuke.

[MichaeltheGreat]

Originally posted by JohnT
"(it did not start with japan bombing pearl harbor...)"

For America, it did. Are European kids taught that WW2 didn't end until September, 1945 or do y'all think the war ended in late May?

From the Japanese perspective at the time, the casus belli started with Perry's black ships in 1854, and the cholera epidemic of 1882. The Great White Fleet guaranteed the US would be one of the prime targets.

[DanS]

Mass killing nowadays is much more likely to be done by nuke.

Point well taken.

the casus belli started with Perry's black ships in 1854

It's interesting that Japan actually thought this was as big of an event as US history books make it out. A couple of days ago, I read Perry's notes to the Japanese while he was in Tokyo's harbor. Really fun reading!

[MichaeltheGreat]

It's pretty culture shocking for a xenophobic warrior culture to suddenly realize you're at the mercy of foreigners who are technologically nearly three centuries more advanced than you.

It also had an impact in that the initial landing by Spaniards in 1543 was supposed to be another conquistador conquest, with some 800 conquistadores. Too bad for them, or lucky for them, depending on perspective, that they landed in Satsuma-han, where the Shimazu were based. The mounted archer contingent of the Shimazu' samurai was 12-15 thousand by itself, and Shimazu had more men under arms than the King of Spain, yet wasn't more than a regional power. That cured the Spanish of designs for outright conquest, but the Japanese were very aware up to the time of Sekigahara that Christian foreigners were trying to use internal subversion to conquer by proxy.

That really added to the shock factor of Perry's ships, and the cholera epidemics in 1858, 1877 and 1882 (all traceable to western foreigners, the 1882 epidemic being caused when a known sick crewman was forcibly landed) reinforced the sense of helplessness and national humiliation that gave rise to the renewed militarism of the Meiji era.

[Lord Merciless]

Japanese also had firearms against the Spaniards.

[St Leo]

Japanese also had metals against the Spaniards.

[Lazerus]

"The only thing we learn from history is that we never learn from history."

don't know who said it but it's a decent quote that i like.

[Q Classic]

it happened in korea, china, and japan.

all three nations had the same materials for the same technology that the west had... they just didn't have some of the more recent developments, i.e., industrial revolution/mass production.

so naturally, the white man had better goods... and forced himself upon the exotic east orient. (oh, one could go on for pages about the sexual symbolism of that, as evidenced by miss saigon, madame butterfly, et al.)

that's what drove japan to industrialize. it pushed korea to industrialize, but it was behind japan... making it ripe for annexation, unfortunately. china, well... china...

it's too bad that japan's children don't know too much about their history. the less savory part, anyway. then again, i suppose it's a tendency of most nations to do that.

[Zero]

Originally posted by Azazel

Quote:

I think the notion that suffering makes one better is very popular: why else are men who go into battle seen as "heroes", besides the point that we think becuase they risked danger, death and suffering somehow makes them more "worthy" than those that stay home?

Not only because of the self-sacrifice, but self-sacrifice done for a good cause. Otherwise, the 9/11 bomber would be seen by everyone as heroes.

by some people they are

[MichaeltheGreat]

Originally posted by Lord Merciless
Japanese also had firearms against the Spaniards.

No, the Spaniards and Portuguese sold firearms to the Japanese later on. Since the Japanese longbow was more accurate and had longer range, and a much better rate of fire (but required a much higher skill level), firearms didn't catch on in a big way until Oda Nobunaga used them en masse (3,500) at the battle of Nagashino in 1576, 33 years after the Spanish langing in Satsuma.

The mass formation employment of matchlock muskets shredded attacking Takeda forces, and demonstrated that firearms could be employed in a way to get adequate volume of fire.