Jeff's Journal

Twenty Years Ago

Twenty years ago today, I was in Hiroshima at a peace gathering. It was the 40th Anniversary of the bombing. I was traveling the rails of the Shinkansen (Japanese bullet train) roaming around Japan the summer of 1985.

I made it to the Peace Park and tried to find a place to stand. After living in Asia, I was accustomed to massive crowds, but this one was packed. I recall it was a rainy, drizzly day. There was a bell tolling. I did not understand a word the speakers spoke. There was a heavy mood. The gray sky and the bell’s toll carried the mood.

I found a spot near the Peace Fountain. A huge display of origami cranes had been created by children from across Japan and placed between the Peace Fountain and the Children’s Monument. It was the vow for peace. Paper lanterns were around the park and in the water to commemorate the loss of life.

In the park were museums with pictures and artifacts. It was incredible to see the devastation. When the bomb hit, there was vaporization. The Hiroshima Prefectural Commercial Exhibition Hall (or the A-Bomb Dome) was the eerie skeleton in the park.

In one of the exhibits I saw a picture from the hills above Hiroshima after the blast. It was as if the city was in a basin that was crushed.

After spending the day in the park, I took a ferry out to Miyajima and maneuvered my way up a hill. Somehow, I got to the spot where the picture of devastation had been taken forty years earlier and was able to look out over the city. The only obvious remnant of the peril to the city was the park. The city had built back and was prospering again.

Somewhere I have a journal from that trip. I remember thinking about war. I had not experienced war. I was a young child during Vietnam. My cousins enlisted in the armed services during times of peace. They told stories of serving our country more as a travel brochure than protection against aggression.

After spending the day viewing the exhibits of total destruction, I felt responsible for the destruction. I also remember trying to balance that emotion with my “kibun” for my Korean friends who spoke about the atrocities of the Japanese when Japan occupied Korea. I also thought it was interesting there was no mention of Pearl Harbor.

Many Post-Modern philosophers point to this day in 1945 as the end of the Enlightenment. All of our efforts at enlightenment culminated in one major form of brilliance over a city and at the end of the morning all that knowledge consummated a chthonic chaos and absolute destruction.

I remember thinking wars of destruction were done and future battles would be economic. The Walkman was beginning to be very popular. I remember thinking that Japan was making another global invasion with the power of Sony.

It is amazing what twenty more years has brought about. I remember reading Frances Fukuyama in the early 1990s and his statement about the End of History. He was reflecting on Hegel that the evolution of human society would culminate when mankind achieved a form of society that satisfied its deepest and fundamental longings. I could buy into that idea. Maybe we had learned some lessons and development and progress would bring the end of conflict. Little did we know what the longings of fundamentalists would bring to the globe within a decade.

Thinking today, I find it amazing that I can say twenty years ago and it has me wondering about twenty years from now.

posted by Jeff Waldo @ 6:41 PM