Aggression Cycle

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8LfMNX3TsT0

After reading Barefoot Gen by Keiji Nakazawa, I thought about aggression against humanity. I sympathize with Gen’s family. My body cringe at the images of burning flesh and flesh impaled by sharp broken window glasses. It’s crude and hard; the scenes gives little hope for humanity, and precisely because of the lack of hope that Gen’s positive outlook, like wheat, is uplifting and weathers the harsh environment.

Do I think America’s action, bombing Hiroshima and Nagasaki, a crime against humanity? The question seems simple enough but it isn't black and white. I am perplex by humans, by the direction humanity takes.

Someone mentioned in discussion in our last class that the ones who suffer and the ones deserving of a voice or an apology are the innocent ones, the ones who didn’t start the war. In Barefoot Gen we read of Gen’s father’s opposition to the war and also bear witness, as readers, to the lies the civilians were fed with about the war. In parallel, in “Atomic Cafe” we also saw how the government, through propaganda, encourage the use of nuclear bombs for their safety. Americans were told that the rays won’t penetrate their skin, that they are safe if they merely “duck and cover.” I see Japan and America as two countries rule by fear and greed for power; people generated by fear and rulers greedy for more power. The ones paying are the ones who want to simply live a life and feed their family.

Bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki is a genocide concentrated in those two cities. Even after the war, no apology was really given until 2009 when President Obama gave a bow to the emperor of Japan and apologized for the bombing during WWII-- there were controversies amongst Americans; Obama’s actions were seen, by some U.S. citizens as submissive. I supposed after innocents are killed no amount of compensation will do and an apology should be sufficient, but what really can appease the deep hurt of those left behind? The innocent deaths can’t be undone. Although President Obama may have “apologized,” it was not a consensus apology from the citizens of U.S. because the blame for Pearl Harbor was still in the hearts of many.

Japan isn't innocent either for during WWII they installed unit 731 in north-eastern China. Unit 731 grew plagues in prisoners of war (Chinese, Koreans, and Russians); after some time they would cut the prisoners open and study them. No prisoners got out alive. Cholera was also injected in rice cakes and handed to children. Activist Wang Xuan says this is a “serious crime against humanity” and “how can you just let them go?” She wanted compensation and an apology of true “repentance” from the Japanese government. Her and her ancestral village (learn more about her and what she’s really fighting for in the link above) began a lawsuit against Japan, calling into account those who were involved in biological force. It’s sad to hear of these stories, and once again it is the innocent that are harmed. (One reason members of unit 731 were never prosecuted was because of the data unit 731 gave to the U.S.-- data they felt were safer with them than to fall in the hands of Russians).

It may be shortsighted of me, but it seems as though the ones who get away are the ones who win the war or have something to give in exchange. The innocents are made to put up with the injustice they encounter. Some Americans suffered from the bombs just as the Japanese did; some Japanese civilians experience similar aggression (at the hands of the U.S.) to what some Chinese suffered (at the hands of Japan). It’s a cycle; the ones to blame are never really blamed.