Japanese schoolchildren waved when President and Mrs Nathan arrived at the Peace Memorial. The terrible event of August 6 happened more than sixty years ago. Since then, the city has being rebuilt and, on the surface, life has returned to normal. The Peace Park was designed to be a park with lots of open spaces for visitors to wander around. The memorial itself is not monumental in scale, just a simple structure with an eternal flame at back of it and, in the distance, the ruins of the dome of the old Hiroshima Prefecture Exhibition Hall can be seen.
It is at the museum hall that the full horrors are recorded. One cannot see the exhibits without feeling conflicted. Were the Americans justified in dropping the bomb? Why two, first on Hiroshima, then, a few days later, on Nagasaki which I visited two years ago? Was it to save more lives being lost in the Pacific? Was it to end the war quickly before Stalin could make further gains in the Far East? We were told that no serving US President has visited either Hiroshima or Nagasaki. A survivor of the Hiroshima bomb recounted his suffering to President Nathan.
Over a hundred million people died during the Second World War. Killing was planned on an industrial scale. New technologies were tested on innocent civilians. Scientists planned the fire bombing of entire cities. Six million Jews were killed during the holocaust. The memories continue to haunt us. As US leaders don't visit the atomic bomb sites, Japanese leaders are reluctant to visit Nanjing. Benedict XVI, a German, received sharp criticisms during his current visit to the Holy Land. When the Hiroshima survivor met President Nathan, he began with an apology for what the Japanese Imperial Army did in Singapore from 1942 to 1945. But he was still angry with the US.
The inhabitants of Hiroshima and Nagasaki can never forget what happened to them. Nothing they did could justify what was done to them. What they now seek is not revenge but peace. When I told the Mayor of Hiroshima that one doesn't achieve peace through pacifism, he acknowledged my point immediately but added that the constituencies which favour peaceful resolution of conflicts should always speak out. Looking back, the 20th century was the bloodiest century ever in human history. We must learn from our mistakes. With the technology we now have, we can destroy much of humanity in the 21st century if we are not possessed of a higher moral sense.
George Yeo
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