Sam (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
l33tminion) wrote2007-05-04 12:10 am
l33tminion) wrote2007-05-04 12:10 am
A Beautiful Break
Recap of the rest of my trip:
Monday: Visited Peace Memorial Park. The Peace Museum was heart-wrenching (and sometimes stomach-wrenching), really, the only museum I've been to that was even slightly similar was the Holocaust Museum in Washington, DC. The rest of the park was a beautiful and moving memorial, especially the Children's Peace Memorial.
I've heard debates before on whether the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings were justified, and I don't see how any of our WWII-era motivations (or probably any motivation) could have made such an act reasonable. The immediate death toll from a nuclear attack is staggering, but all the textbooks I've seen have brushed over the fatally injured, tens of thousands dying painful deaths over a matter of days or weeks in a situation where even adequate palliative care is thwarted by the destruction of infrastructure and the massive number of injured.
(The rest of the trip wasn't so emotionally heavy... it seems a bit callous to write about it now. :-/ A brief pause...)
Tuesday: Explored downtown Hiroshima. Saw Spiderman 3. I enjoyed trying to read the Japanese subtitles but could only recognize the occasional word. Wandered around the district of Hiroshima known for it's nightlife, but found that most clubs there seem to be 日本人 (nihonjin; Japanese people) only (which annoyed me on principle, even though I don't care that much about those particular establishments).
Wednesday: Took the bullet train to Kyoto. Met Doc Itoh (a really cool guy who Vito knows (through a friend) from his research work). Itoh-san had kindly offered to host us during our stay in Kyoto. He speaks excellent English, so there were no issues with communication (although I enjoyed trying to speak in Japanese as well). Talking to him about his research (focusing on archeology and plant biology, apparently) was very interesting, and he helped us quite a bit with our Japanese. Itoh-san also shared some interesting Japanese foods. I can now say I've tried umeboshi (pickled Japanese plums; texture like a slightly mushy plum, extremely salty and sour), and while that's not something I'd choose to eat frequently, I enjoyed the experience.
Today: Visited a bamboo forest park and a huge Zen Bhuddist temple. Had an interesting conversation (largely in Japanese!) with a random trilingual foreign exchange student. Overall, a very relaxing day. Only annoyances: My seasonal allergies are killing me (weren't bothering me at all until the last few days), and the ATM at the post office was closed when I tried to get more money (I'm running a bit low). I spent somewhat more than usual on this trip on (really awesome) food. I was able to save on accommodations due to hostel niftiness and Itoh-San's exceptional generosity, so I guess the trip wasn't too expensive. Still, I'll have to watch my spending when I get back to Tokyo.
Tomorrow: Going home on the bullet train. I got some homework / studying done on the trip, but I should probably have done more. I have quite a bit of work to do over the weekend when I get back.
Overall, this trip was awesome, and I'm really glad I went.
Monday: Visited Peace Memorial Park. The Peace Museum was heart-wrenching (and sometimes stomach-wrenching), really, the only museum I've been to that was even slightly similar was the Holocaust Museum in Washington, DC. The rest of the park was a beautiful and moving memorial, especially the Children's Peace Memorial.
I've heard debates before on whether the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings were justified, and I don't see how any of our WWII-era motivations (or probably any motivation) could have made such an act reasonable. The immediate death toll from a nuclear attack is staggering, but all the textbooks I've seen have brushed over the fatally injured, tens of thousands dying painful deaths over a matter of days or weeks in a situation where even adequate palliative care is thwarted by the destruction of infrastructure and the massive number of injured.
(The rest of the trip wasn't so emotionally heavy... it seems a bit callous to write about it now. :-/ A brief pause...)
Tuesday: Explored downtown Hiroshima. Saw Spiderman 3. I enjoyed trying to read the Japanese subtitles but could only recognize the occasional word. Wandered around the district of Hiroshima known for it's nightlife, but found that most clubs there seem to be 日本人 (nihonjin; Japanese people) only (which annoyed me on principle, even though I don't care that much about those particular establishments).
Wednesday: Took the bullet train to Kyoto. Met Doc Itoh (a really cool guy who Vito knows (through a friend) from his research work). Itoh-san had kindly offered to host us during our stay in Kyoto. He speaks excellent English, so there were no issues with communication (although I enjoyed trying to speak in Japanese as well). Talking to him about his research (focusing on archeology and plant biology, apparently) was very interesting, and he helped us quite a bit with our Japanese. Itoh-san also shared some interesting Japanese foods. I can now say I've tried umeboshi (pickled Japanese plums; texture like a slightly mushy plum, extremely salty and sour), and while that's not something I'd choose to eat frequently, I enjoyed the experience.
Today: Visited a bamboo forest park and a huge Zen Bhuddist temple. Had an interesting conversation (largely in Japanese!) with a random trilingual foreign exchange student. Overall, a very relaxing day. Only annoyances: My seasonal allergies are killing me (weren't bothering me at all until the last few days), and the ATM at the post office was closed when I tried to get more money (I'm running a bit low). I spent somewhat more than usual on this trip on (really awesome) food. I was able to save on accommodations due to hostel niftiness and Itoh-San's exceptional generosity, so I guess the trip wasn't too expensive. Still, I'll have to watch my spending when I get back to Tokyo.
Tomorrow: Going home on the bullet train. I got some homework / studying done on the trip, but I should probably have done more. I have quite a bit of work to do over the weekend when I get back.
Overall, this trip was awesome, and I'm really glad I went.
no subject
I'm sorta surprised by openly Nihonjin-dake clubs, mainly because if they were common I would have expected someone to have talked about it.* Not that I'd be surprised at clubs for making foreigners feel unwelcome. Then again, I never ended up doing the whole clubbing thing, so I wouldn't know either way firsthand...
* Such as Prof. Ian Condry, who's made a career out of going to clubs in Japan and writing about the cross-cultural influences.
no subject
no subject
(Anonymous) 2007-05-06 05:13 am (UTC)(link)Both the Japanese government and civilians share the responsibility for our actions during the war.
I don't have sympathy for them.
no subject
Actually, I'm currently reading a book that discusses that subject. Here's a relevant excerpt:
"A vast indefinite butchery" involving quite probably the deaths of several million people: surely this is a great evil, and if it was imminent, one could reasonably argue that extreme measures might be warrented to avert it. Secretary of War Stimson thought it was the sort of case... where one had to wager; there was no other option... But this is not the same as the argument I suggested in the case of Britain in 1940. It does not have the form: if we don't do x (bomb cities), they will do y (win the war, establish tyrannical rule, slaughter their opponents). What Stimson argued is very different. Given the actual policy of the U.S. government, it amounts to this: if we don't do x, we will do y... Our purpose, then, was not to avert a "butchery" that someone else was threatening, but one that we were threatening, and had already begun to carry out...
Even if we had been fighting in strict accordance with the war convention, the continuation of the struggle was not something forced upon us. It had to do with our war aims. The military estimate of casualties was based not only on the belief that the Japanese would fight to the last man, but also on the assumption that the Americans would accept nothing less than unconditional surrender...
... I would suggest a stronger argument than this. The Japanese case is sufficiently different from the German so that unconditional surrender should never have been asked. Japan's rulers were engaged in a more ordinary sort of military expansion, and all that was morally required was that they be defeated, not that they be conquered and totally overthrown.
For the most part, I agree with the author's arguments.
As far as your claim of not having any sympathy for those who died tortuous deaths (even if I were to accept that they were "at fault"), are you heartless, ignorant, or lying? What of the "mobilized" students working in factories? What of the Korean and Chinese forced laborers? (I'll leave aside the Allied POWs, since it seems that the Americans didn't know that any were being held in Hiroshima. I'll also leave aside the evacuated children left orphaned, since the subject of conversation seems to be the dead.)
Would you apply the same rationale if a US (or insert other nationality of your preference) city was nuked to shorten a war? "Eh, the country was at war, so the citizens were clearly all at fault"?