http://www.commondreams.org/views05/0804-25.htm
Published on Thursday, August 4, 2005 by CommonDreams.org
Hiroshima Spirits, Nagasaki Voices:
Learning from the First Ground Zeroes
by Walter W. Enloe and David B. Willis
"The flash of light. The flash of light was like nothing I had ever
seen before. Or since." - Survivor of Hiroshima, July 2005
August 6 and August 9 are the 60th anniversaries of Hiroshima and
Nagasaki, the first and so far only nuclear catastrophes ever visited
upon humankind. As with other anniversaries it is now time for
reflection, in the cases of Hiroshima and Nagasaki especially so, as
these two bombings and their aftermath, though with enormously
devastating possible consequences for the entire world, seem to be
fading from our collective memory, will, and consciousness.
On the one hand, the past century has seen a great deal of human
introspection and understanding. Our biological, social, and human
sciences- from genetics to developmental psychology and from
narrative to cross cultural studies- have allowed us to construct an
understanding of ourselves, from the inner particles of a molecule to
the outer edges of our universe.
We can alter genetic material to constitute new life structures, and
we can construct communicative forms from novels to films to musical
scores that can be reconstituted, sent around the world at lightning
speed, and valued by others. Through an image of Earth as seen from
the moon to planetary satellites, global communication, and economic
interdependencies, and through organizations like the United Nations
and our Universal Declaration of Human Rights, we have a greater
sense of the interconnectedness of the world's people and places.
On the other hand, this past century has been a time of unprecedented
death and misery, a century of human destruction and environmental
degradation unparalleled in scope in human history. Through two world
wars, and continuing ethnic, religious, and sociopolitical conflicts,
a hundred million noncombatants, including millions and millions of
children, have been murdered in the last hundred years. Add to these
innocent dead the millions of combatants who died or were grievously
wounded in body or soul.
And what of the hundreds of millions who died of poverty and
preventable disease years before their natural passing time? Many
thousands die yearly from violence in our own local cities and
neighborhoods and we are increasingly distancing ourselves from each
other. In our own backyards and streets as we build various walls of
separation through fear and intolerance. We must acknowledge that the
Earth has been a global killing field.
These are difficult days, indeed, perhaps especially so for
Americans. An increasing concern regarding the war in Iraq, the war
on terror, environmental destruction, greed and materialism are
rampant. What are we to do?
Many of us are shaken by the world we have created or have allowed to
be created for ourselves and our children and their future. Today too
often we feel threatened and vulnerable. None of us is immune to
violence and the threat of violence. We have allowed locally and
globally an ethos of human violence that either we do not have the
collective will to stop or we do not know how to stop. After the
intentional and systematic destruction of innocent people beginning
with Guernica, Auschwitz, Rwanda, New York on 9-11, and most recently
school children in Russia and babies in Darfur and Iraq, the very
idea of human extinction makes all of us, whether we have children or
not, parents of the next generation. This generation holds the power
and the choice in the post-Nagasaki age regarding annihilation. Each
subsequent generation is thereby indebted to the past generation for
having allowed them to exist.
We need to invoke a healing image and call to active citizenship for
this post-Nagasaki age. Following Jonathan Schell, we can advocate
the concept of "universal parenthood," the idea that all of us are
responsible for our fellow humans. What better way to respond to
these crushing burdens than to recognize and act upon the appeal of
every living Nobel Peace Prize Laureate and the United Nations
General Assembly, who declared the period 2001-2010 as "The decade to
create a culture of peace and nonviolence for the children of the
world," asking that all nations and communities teach conflict
resolution, peace-making, nonviolence, and active citizenship in
their schools, neighborhoods and workplaces.
These Nobel Laureates and the UN General Assembly called for us to
work purposefully, individually and collaboratively, to overcome
apathy, indifference, and even opposition toward initiating and
sustaining such an effort. Where better to start in 2005 than with a
reflection on these first Ground Zeroes? On the occasions of the 50th
commemoration of the nuclear bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki,
ending World War II, an eyewitness noted, "At Hiroshima, there was
much bitternessĀ it was very politicalĀthe symbol could be a fist
raised in anger. At Nagasaki, there was sadness, but also
tranquility, reflection. It was not political. We prayed. We do not
blame the United States; rather we wept over the sin of war, and more
particularly, nuclear war. The symbol: hands joined in prayer."
We too must join hands today, not only in informing the world of the
horrors of weapons of mass destruction, but also in solving the human
problems greatly threatening world peace; the lack of fundamental
human rights and freedoms, environmental destruction, poverty and the
preventable deaths of young children. It is the right thing to do.
An unprecedented opportunity is developing slowly across the planet
which provides hope for the future. It is a call to us to build a
world based on tolerance, justice, and respect for all members of the
human family, including those global extremists who wish our demise.
We need to do all the good we can for all the people we can in all
the ways we can, for as Mahatma Gandhi understood: "If we (humans)
are to reach real peace in this world, and if we (adults) are to
carry on a real war against war, we (adults) shall have to begin with
the children."
Walter Enloe is a teacher of graduate education at Hamline University
in St. Paul. He lived in Japan from the age of 12 and from 1980 to
1988 he was headmaster of Hiroshima International School. David B.
Willis teaches cultural studies at Soai University in Osaka, Japan,
where he has lived and worked for 27 years, and is active in peace
and justice movements in Japan, India, and the United States.
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