RACISM

There is a lot of debate over the past 20 years over whether or not the U.S. did the right thing in ending the war by dropping the atomic bomb over both Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
The argument goes we should not have because it killed over 175,000 innocent people. The argument for the bomb is that it saved an estimated 100,000 U.S. personnel minimal in a planned invasion. The Japanese have erected a shrine to the dead, and rightfully so, to recognize this catastrophic event, and every year at the time of the bomb being dropped there is a moment of silence at least.

There is a second argument out there about the rape of Nanking. The Japanese government refuses to recognize that it ever occurred, while China claims about 20,000 women were raped brutally. Plus the tens of thousands who were killed or murdered, makes it a tough sell for the Japanese too re-write their history to deny these things ever happened.

In reading about both events, and the points of view of both sides, one of the startling facts that one must consider is the amount of terror and degradation that was perpetrated upon China by elements of troops sent by Japan that came from Hiroshima! It seems that wanton killings were the norm from these units, and numerous war crimes, too numerous to mention against the Chinese people. A people of culture, and peace, who wanted no part of war, and who suffered dearly for the fact that they were Chinese, at the hands of a barbarian army of invaders. These very Chinese people who taught the Japanese much of their language and culture many, many years ago.

Another factor to consider is that Japan mobilized all of its population, and the estimates are that if the U.S. were to invade Japan, over 2 million Japanese people: men, women and children were going to die.

I fully understand that Japan is a civilized society with a beautiful culture, and Japanese are for the most part a very peaceful race, steeped in a lot of tradition. Unfortunately some of the tradition is not unlike the Old Prussian mindset of militarism and codes of honor. It is a racist mindset just like that which exists toward Asians in the west. Obviously, if you look at all that has been given to the world, you will find great gifts from all races, and all cultures and all have a profound effect on all cultures.

I think Japan must recognize the Rape of Nanking, as they although weakly recognized the fact that they used enslaved “comfort women” from all over Asia for their troops.

I guess racism is going to slow us all down as a human race, and unfortunately, there are all so many great people from all the races that inhabit this earth, that we should be embracing, and looking for the next cure for cancer. The person who finds that cure may very well be coming from Africa, or South America, or Asia as well as North America.

I know that I don’t care where you come from, or what color your skin is if you can help make my life a better life to live, and can perhaps save my child or wife’s life. I think we should look into the face of every child on earth, and ask: do we really want to inhibit or deny him or her the pleasures of life?