Beginning or End?
Throughout the post-war period the peace movement in Japan was aimed at the banning of nuclear weapons. It also advocated scrapping the nation's military partnership with the United States. Without Japan's cooperation, the United States could not have effectively maintained its Asian policy that ultimately led to the military intervention in Vietnam. Now, in the process of Asianization of the Asian war and the reversion of Okinawa, the "Keystone of the Pacific", to Japan, the military partnership is undergoing a significant change. Japan will replace America in Asia, and Okinawa will become a stepping stone for Japan to control Asia militarily--whenever it is deemed necessary.
Indeed, it would take only a short step for Japan to declare her nuclear armament. We believe that it is mainly the resistance, conspicuous or otherwise, on the part of the people who share the national experience of Hiroshima and Nagasaki that has prevented the government from going ahead. The significance of the resistance is by no means confined to national boundaries. Its implication is global. As Auschwitz is a symptom of a bankruptcy in humanity, the events in Hiroshima and Nagasaki may be the beginning of the end of human beings. What the bombing had given us is the message of the nuclear age. If we cannot comprehend it, we shall all perish. In her personal account entitled "My Life for the Last 25 years—Having Lost the Use of the Lower Half of the Body by the A-Bomb," Miss Chieko Watanabe, who was bombed while working at the Mitsubishi Electric Manufacturer in Nagasaki as a student mobilized to labor, expresses her resolve to get this message across to the younger generation who are to inherit the earth:
(There I sat staring at a photograph-a picture of the heaps of corpses of the massacred Vietnamese people which have drifted ashore in the Mekong River. I felt like covering my face with my hands, but dared to rivet my eyes on that photo which reminded me vividly of the current Vietnam War. Millions of innocent Vietnamese people have been killed by means of chemical and biochemical weapons-napalm, gas shells and bacteria-by the American soldiers. The death of one human being causes heart-break and distress to one's family.
All my feelings go to the people of Vietnam whose lives and lands have been mercilessly destroyed by the American intervention. I can share with them in their infinite despair and distress because I am also a war victim.
Just when I was looking at the photo, the TV telecast news of the crude oil spilled from a broken hull of a huge tanker near the Pacific Coast of California, where some Americans were trying to save sea-birds from death by washing off oil, giving them medical care until they could fly high into the air. I cannot help but feel righteous indignation on seeing Americans have compassion for hundreds of sea-birds in jeopardy while the same Americans could continue in Vietnam a war that ultimately led to such an unforgivable massacre. I felt even more deeply the vice and crime of war!...
I was not killed with my hands tied behind my back and then thrown into the Mekong River in the same way as the Vietnamese people but my youth was completely snatched away with the dropping of the A-bomb in Nagasaki 25 years ago. I was only in my teens when all my future hopes and possibilities were in a flash taken away from me and my life began as an A-bomb victim strictly confined to bed.
My mother shared with me in this tragic fate, devoting herself to looking after me, just as Vietnamese mothers would go to take care of their sons who were shot and injured.
I can clearly hear the wails of the Vietnamese people. The people of Vietnam have arisen to save themselves, their families, their homes and villages and the country which they love. So did I rise from the life of misery and distress and determine to go on as a witness against war and A-bombs by actively joining with many others a campaign against A-and H-bombs. I am fully convinced that participation in this movement is the only life goal for me to achieve as my life was nearly destroyed 25 years ago.
Luckily enough, the people of Vietnam or Cambodia have not suffered A-bombs so far. Nevertheless, they are constantly exposed to the menace of nuclear weapons today. In this sense, they, as well as the rest of the world, are close to suffering the same fate as I did. It was the worldwide public opinion against nuclear weapons that prevented their use by America which wanted badly to use them. I am throughly convinced that my voice, though small, does contribute to the great power of the world against nuclear weapons.
The campaign is important, especially now, 25 years later, when there are many who will not know about the damage by the A-bombs unless we tell them. In spite of this need, some factual illustrations such as those of atomic clouds have been censored from and scenes of disastrous conditions, miseries and lamentation of the text-books, victims have also been cut out from the documentary film of the bombing. We have to continue without faltering to appeal for truth.
I personally do not like going around telling about my miserable life and appealing to people. But if we keep silent, who would convey our feelings to others? As a witness of the bombing, I must talk the young generation and by so doing bring forth a new force peace and help develop the campaign against nuclear weapons. I firmly believe that, as a human being, this is the least I should do as long as I live.