The Nature of Containment

Without a doubt, the mushroom cloud grabs hold as the most common form of imagery associated with the atomic bomb. In class, we talked about the intersections of knowledge, information, and intelligence. The Internet is a site for looking into a vast amount of information. It is something we take advantage of without realizing it. As was said in class, the Internet was developed as a military tool. We also talked about how intelligence is instrumentalized, and does not always have to do with the truth. Concerning the idea of containment, someone said in class, we are not in peace time, but we have a fiction that we are. The actions that are projected onto other countries have repercussions. Often times what is learned in the classroom is convoluted by other histories that do not resonate with Asian or Asian American perspectives. This makes it difficult to learn about ethnic history and being able to apply that knowledge to the contemporary workings of society. Learning about European colonizers overshadows the stories of the victims of the atomic bombings and nuclear activity.

In America, a student rarely if ever, learns the perspectives of another culture unless they are given constant exposure from an outside source, or the individual actively seeks out constant exposure. I believe this results in a great rift between cultural relationships. Trauma still remains from the war, the incarceration of Japanese, and the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. It is frustrating that there were and are policies in place to censor what information is released to the public. As long as ethnic histories continue to be brushed over, mutual understanding will remain an afterthought in many people’s minds. Too often the histories of war and those affected are presented by someone who stood above as the doer of these events. It is unfair to cast a veil over the true voices of those histories. Not only does this silence first hand experiences and perspectives, it also creates false misconceptions and assumptions of those societies or peoples. Despite fear and uncertainty, the only choice there should be is to tell the truth. In relating authentic narratives, this allows us as society to keep moving forward. To become grounded, we have to both question and answer to the faults that were made, and could potentially be repeated.