The wall of the entrance of the archives read "The Road to War" and I assumed that the history until the outbreak of the war would be handled inside the archives, but they referred to the atomic bomb in the latter half of the archives, though the item on the bomb was only a single picture which I'll show you below. I've heard that lots of U.S. citizens insisted that the atomic bombs were necessary to put an end to the war as soon as possible. Then, why didn't they display more pictures and more explanations majestically. I hoped that they Would display more pictures of the mushroom cloud, devastated cities, burnt-out people, and so on. No more ridiculous excuses. Show the sincerity.
The schoolgirl in the picture is Sadako Sasaki, the symbolic person among the numerous victims. She was exposed to the radiation of the atomic bomb at the age of two in Hiroshima, and nine years later, she developed leukemia. When lying in her hospital, she folded 1000 paper cranes using medicine wrappers and whatever paper she could find, which were believed in Japan to make wishes come true. She just wanted to get well, but in vain. The story of this schoolgirl became widely known, and later, people began to consider sets of 1000 cranes to be a special form of origami, the Japanese art of folding paper, imbued with hopes and prayers. That's why lots of paper cranes were hung in the picture. By the way, the archives didn't refer to the other victims who were slaughtered miserably and took her as a victim putting the emphasis on the word "survivor". I got really angry about their insincere attitude. Did you notice the smaller paper cranes in the picture, about which I'll explain in the next entry.
I wrote about the rules which every country must observe in times of war. You must not attack non-armed people who don't have the will to fight. Under the rules, the atomic bombings to kill ordinary people were not warfare but just slaughter. That was simply a war crime. When the fighters were out, the Anglo-Saxons carried out a raid on the fighters' families in the history of invasion in north America. Their traditional methods to invade were adopted also in the Great East Asian War.
If people who visited these archives and understated the damage by the atomic bomb see the displays in the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum, they would be totally astonished. Reportedly the former U.S. President Obama had lost his words with tears in his eyes to see lots of exhibited items, and left his own folded paper cranes at the museum. It's inevitably essential to know the historical facts to pave a new hopeful road to the future.
(Vocabulary)
imbue sb/sth with sth (フォーマル) ＜…＞に＜感情・性質など＞を吹き込む, 鼓吹する
原子爆弾
史料館の入り口に戦争への道とあったので、開戦前までのことが説明されているのかと思ったら原爆についても言及があった。ただ、人類史上初めて人に対して使われた原子爆弾に対して、掲げられていたのは下に示したこの１枚のパネルのみ。原爆のお陰で戦争が早く終結して多くの日本人が救われたというのがアメリカの言い分。原爆投下は当然だったと、、胸を張って言えるのなら堂々と展示しては如何か？そして、原爆について書くのなら、原爆を落とした広島や長崎の地図とか、被害状況とか、もう少し詳しく説明してはどうだろう？キノコ雲の写真などを展示すべきではないのか？くだらない言い訳ばかり書くのではなく、正直なデータを表示すべきだろう。
ここにある写真の人物は原爆の被害者の一人。中学生の佐々木禎子。原爆を生き延びたものの、白血病を罹患した。彼女は生きたいと願い、願いが叶うという折り鶴をおって健康を祈ったが願いは聞き入れられなかった。折り鶴にはそういう意味が込められている。禎子は原爆被害者のシンボル的な存在であるが、原爆でむごい死に方をした人々には言及せず、"Survivor"という言葉を強調して、一旦は原爆を生き延びた禎子について展示する、その不誠実さに怒りがこみ上げてきた。折り鶴の小さい方については、、、さらに怒りを込めて以降の記事で書く。
先の記事で、戦時国際法というのがあると書いた。非武装、無抵抗なものを攻撃してはならないとある。その規定に照らせば、一般市民を狙った原爆投下は戦争行為ではなく、虐殺である。つまり犯罪である。戦いに出ている戦士の不在を狙って戦う意志も能力もない女子供老人を襲う、、、アングロサクソンが北米インディアンに対して使った卑怯な手段がここでも繰り返されている。
この展示を見て原爆を過小評価した人が広島の平和祈念資料館を訪れたら、腰を抜かすだろう。広島でオバマが言葉を失い、涙を浮かべたという報道があったが、誇張ではあるまい。自分たちの父祖がやったことを真摯に理解してこそ将来がある。
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