PEARL HARBOR

70 years ago, the world was once again, fully into conflict. In those 70 years, a lot has been learned and in the immediate past 20 years, and yours truly learned a lot too.

We as westerners come to view the attack on Pearl Harbor as a “sneak” attack. If you ask a Japanese what that was, he or she will tell you from the Bushido code, it is launching a battle, and surprise is the element most needed to succeed.

The Japanese people didn’t want war, and the raging conflict that existed within the Japanese government was between the peace faction and moderates opposed to war against the army and navy hotheads that eventually prevailed. The military even deceived the Emperor!

Many Americans think that Hiroshima was the reason for Japan’s surrender. It wasn’t! What made Japan surrender was the firebombing that the USAF conducted with impunity on the cities of Japan, threatening to wipe out the cities populations and cultures. They, the Japanese viewed the atomic bomb as just another weapon. The Emperor, Hirohito saw the destruction of the Atomic bomb and feared for his people.

The Japanese considered the atomic bomb to be an act of terrorism and a war crime, and had they won the war, General Curtis Lemay would have stood trial for war crimes because of the fire bombing, as well as the atomic bomb!

I personally do not wish to pardon the Japanese for what they did, especially in Nanking, Hong Kong, and Singapore, not to mention the Bataan Death March, or the callous disregard for prisoners of war. What troubles me is we were sending home skeleton heads of dead Japanese soldiers as souvenirs, a ghoulish act in anyone’s book.

So what we have is the sad fact that we wage war, make ourselves self-righteous and condemn the loser as the aggressor, the barbarian, and the war criminal.

I have always admired the Japanese race. They are culturally a beautiful people, dealing with the pleasures of life. Everyone writes poems that depict the moment or a character. The way they view nature, the simplicity in their art and their calligraphy, so beautiful that each character could be a design in itself, which it is. The Japanese food is some of the best in the world, and I am not speaking of sushi, although I love it. Their lives are interwoven with tradition that dates for hundreds and hundreds of years, unchanged, and yet can be adapted to today’s needs. Flower arrangements, tea ceremonies, sword making, lacquer finishing, their dress and utensils, all viewed distinctively as Japanese, and their art is special. They have perfected the art of brush painting. They have taken a war-ravaged economy and turned it into one of the best and most prosperous in the world. They are the leaders now in the auto industry and electronics.

It is too bad we need to fight among ourselves, there is so much to enjoy, so much to learn, and so much to give to each other.

Maybe someday we will all get it.