Tuesday, August 16, 2005
Tokyo Needs A Dresden Moment?
In today’s Wall Street Journal one Fumio Matsuo, former Washington bureau chief of Kyodo News Service, on the anniversary of the Japanese surrender to the United States marking the conclusion of World War II in the Pacific, suggests that “Tokyo Needs Its Dresden Moment.”
That is, to help heal what Mr. Matsuo describes as a still unresolved rift between Japan and the United States, an amendment to the descriptive plaque on the Enola Gay at the Smithsonian Institute would be in order.
Although the Journal does not say how long he served here, likely Mr. Matsuo stewed too long in the peculiar juices of the Kyodo News Service’s Washington Bureau, and that is what makes him sound so much like a John Kerry "wanna be."
But frankly, and with just a slight further amendment, most Americans probably wouldn’t have any problem with Mr. Matsuo’s suggestion at all.
On the Enola Gay plaque let’s not mention only the number of Japanese “victims” of the bombing; let’s add to the plaque as well the best-guess estimates that President Truman made regarding how many victims of the Japanese war-making machine, whether Japanese, or Americans Chinese, Russians, Indonesians, Filipino, Korean or any other nationality who would be spared as a result of the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
That would be an informative plaque, and give the Japanese all the Dresden Moment that they should require.
That is, to help heal what Mr. Matsuo describes as a still unresolved rift between Japan and the United States, an amendment to the descriptive plaque on the Enola Gay at the Smithsonian Institute would be in order.
Japan should ask for changes in the placards on the restored B-29s that dropped the nuclear bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki -- Enola Gay at the Smithsonian and Bock's Car at Dayton's Air Force Museum. The placards explain that the aircraft dropped the bombs toward the end of the war but do not mention the estimated number of victims -- 140,000 at Hiroshima and 70,000 at Nagasaki. Listing the number killed is the least we can do to allow the dead to rest in peace.
Stating the number of victims is admittedly controversial. In 1995, the year of the Dresden Reconciliation, the Smithsonian organized an atomic bomb exhibit on the 50th anniversary of the end of WWII, but many Americans objected to any reference to the number of victims. Today these displays should be of little concern to Americans since Japan and the U.S. have become so much closer, particularly in light of the deployment to Iraq. Most Americans believe the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki saved lives on both sides by bringing a swift end to the war. That stance is not incompatible with listing the number of victims or having Mr. Bush mourn them. In fact, those actions would be a minimal requiem for the dead. I believe Americans will accept these facts.
Although the Journal does not say how long he served here, likely Mr. Matsuo stewed too long in the peculiar juices of the Kyodo News Service’s Washington Bureau, and that is what makes him sound so much like a John Kerry "wanna be."
But frankly, and with just a slight further amendment, most Americans probably wouldn’t have any problem with Mr. Matsuo’s suggestion at all.
On the Enola Gay plaque let’s not mention only the number of Japanese “victims” of the bombing; let’s add to the plaque as well the best-guess estimates that President Truman made regarding how many victims of the Japanese war-making machine, whether Japanese, or Americans Chinese, Russians, Indonesians, Filipino, Korean or any other nationality who would be spared as a result of the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
That would be an informative plaque, and give the Japanese all the Dresden Moment that they should require.
