Hiroshima Survivor Recalls Devastation

it's supposed to be devastating. the feeling at the time was that all the japanese on the island weren't worth the life of a single american soldier, which is also the feeling today. the thing to notice is that that changed instantly as soon as a surrender happened and the u.s. did everything to help the japanese; a war that worked on victory not hatred. it was moreover a bluff - there were only the two devices left, we didn't have others.

the japanese celebrate the day with lugubrious memorial services, treating it as like really bad weather, some unfortunate thing that came out of the blue. this is a way of forgetting what led to it. so a celebration of triumph over evil by dogged and iron american determination is never seen and will never be seen.

gentleness is only possible where there is great strength; which answers the paradox of aiding the japanese instantly after the war.

pacifism is not happy with that. it wants a virtue of great weakness. but that is ungrammatical, as Wittgenstein would put it.


ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. -- Shigeko Sasamori hopes her scarred body and gnarled fingers put a human face on the suffering caused by the creation of the atomic bomb, a weapon that was first tested 60 years ago in the New Mexico desert.