PROMETHEAN ANTAGONIST

I like Japan. I live here. Like anyone staying here “for the duration,” I can't help but view Japan now with a more critical eye. None of my criticisms overrides my overall appreciation for the country and its people though.

Most of my criticisms are directed at tolerable weaknesses – most of which occur in abundance in other countries (including my own home country – the U.S.). Japan is bureau top-heavy. Bureaucrats and their procedures clog everything from the country's economic arteries to rules on waste disposal ('talk about making a simple concept like recycling into a labyrinth of inefficient and stupid red tape).

Actions by Japan in World War II don't spark my passions much. It's history. It's other people from another time and another government altogether, but...

The city of Nagaoka, like many cities in WWII, was fire-bombed. Thousands of innocents were killed and/or injured in the horrible tragedy of war. Like the circumstances in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, thousands of arguments regarding America's actions could be debated but... Some context please (!).

Bombing Nagaoka had as much strategic value as bombing Dresden, Germany (another senseless tragedy in the deck of Mars' cruel hand). Nagaoka was bombed as a primarily symbolic act in the final week of the war (of course, no one knew it would be the final week of the war as the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki had not yet taken place and the military government of Japan was yet unwilling to surrender). It's the home of Admiral Yamamoto who led the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor thus ushering in American involvement in the world-wide conflict. Again, context is important here. Yamamoto actually was against the idea of picking a fight with the U.S. After all, he had gone to Harvard University and knew that Americans wouldn't likely take the attack on Hawaii well. But, again, its (would be) just history – if it weren't for the fact that people so love to bend and warp history and remove any context that may clarify why tragedies erupt.

Nagaoka annually mourns the horror of the city's bombing in an elaborate fireworks display. Brief references of respect to civilian lives lost are made -- all reasonable expressions of sympathy for the innocent.

Currently there are some photos prominently displayed on the city's main street showing the horrors of the fateful evening when Nagaoka was firebombed. I wouldn't blame a young person if they came to hate the U.S. upon seeing such depictions of violence. After all, how many of them know about “The Rape of Nanking” or the Bataan Death March. No – Japan was just minding its own business and carrying on the mundane affairs of its authoritarian government when the big mean United States just rolled in and started a random bombing raid. Of course, all the atrocities committed by Japan in WWII don't justify killing the innocent civilians of Japan “in retaliation.” War is often quite senseless or at least prods it's participants into overly impulsive action. Nagaoka's citizens, like all places that have endured the violence of war, have every reason to morn the tragedy in their past. My skepticism regarding the issue involves why a few streets away from this image, and this museum, there is a large sculpture/memorial to Admiral Yamamoto. Why is his birthplace enshrined and occasional special exhibits, like this held? There's even a Yamamoto curry sauce marketed in the city (a vast difference from colonel Sander's eleven herbs and spices or General Tao's Chicken). To my knowledge (I may be wrong) there is no proud display honoring the military official who oversaw the German attack on Poland in 1939.

The only reason this issue has caught my attention is that we live in an era when hypocrisy is now the order of the day when people express anti-war sentiments. The U.S., its history, and its actions are continually critiqued and its darker actions elevated as testament to its character (presumed to be downright evil). Such critiques are seldom presented with any degree of context, balance, or honesty.

So it is that citizens in a city in Japan now mourn the tragedy of innocents killed in a bombing raid in WWII...while simultaneously celebrating the heroism of an instigator of the very same war.

“Stop war!...but try this delicious Yamamoto brand curry sauce.”

Crazy crazy world...

# posted by Promethean Antagonist @ 11:55 AM