Reply #107: Describing historical fact, as I did, is not an endorsement of the nuclear arms race, the use of DU

[Hekate]

... or any other such thing. In fact, I specifically said: "I never want to see nukes or depleted uranium weaponry or anything of the sort ever used again -- and yet the US does that." The US uses nukes in the form of weapons made of depleted uranium, that when are blown up become aerosolized. The sands of Iraq have been poisoned with DU since the first Gulf War.

I lived through the nuclear arms race, and it was terrifying. Photos of the carnage at Hiroshima were widely available and I saw those.

Other posters in this thread have been accused of some sort of hatred of the Japanese, so let me add that I grew up among Asian-Americans and "Jap" was considered a racial slur that had outlived its time and certainly had no place in describing Americans. But I also got to meet a survivor of a Japanese prison camp in the Philippines.

I was interested enough in Asian culture for my undergraduate major to be Asian history. My senior thesis was on Japanese literature during WW II and its aftermath. No one could fail to be moved by the description of civilian suffering in Ibuse Masuji's "Black Rain," which is about the survivors of the bombing of Hiroshima.

I have remained interested in that island nation, and bear the subsequent generations no ill will. After all, it all took place before I was born, too.

But whatever else may be, this is also a fact: Unlike the Germans, the Japanese have NEVER come to terms with the atrocities they committed during WW II. They don't mention it in their history books and they don't want to hear about it from anyone. Japanese historians who write about the Rape of Nanking, the prison camps, the "comfort women" (who were kidnapped and enslaved as prostitutes in the barracks of Japanese soldiers) and so forth are roundly condemned by the public, the parliament, the newspapers....

This denial allows them to believe they are simply victims, without any responsibility. In my opinion, this is inexcusable.

Knowing this and acknowledging this context does not make me an apologist for nuclear arms. Life is not that simple.

Hekate