The Bells of Nagasaki

by Takashi Nagai, William Johnston | Biographies & Memoirs |
ISBN: 4770018452 Global Overview for this book
Registered by SKingList of New York City, New York USA on 12/31/2005
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2 journalers for this copy...
Journal Entry 1 by SKingList from New York City, New York USA on Saturday, December 31, 2005
...and I don't give 10s.

I went a little nuts when I finally found this book at Metrobooks in ながさき駅 and kinda bought a few copies, ie all the store had! It's worth it though, since I don't want to let this copy out of my site, plus there are a few people I want to share it with and I wanted to do a ray so...

I'm very bummed that the Takashi Nagai Museum was closed for the holidays when I got here, because it was something on my must-do list, but such is life. And luckily, his influence is not confined to his museum, you can feel his presence all over the city.

平和を indeed!

Journal Entry 2 by SKingList from New York City, New York USA on Tuesday, January 3, 2006
I re-read this on the train from Nagasaki and been meaning to combine this with an e-mail I wrote on Nagasaki and still may, but in the mean time I wanted to add some thoughts here on the book.

This, like "Japan's Longest Day" has made me realise just how little I know about the circumstances around the surrender. I also realise that we're never really going to know the truth. I think the only ones who did, mainly Churchill, Stalin and Truman, are long dead and the truth is buried with them. Did Japan really plan to surrender before the bombs came down? Did Truman know it and commit to dropping the bomb solely because $1B UShad already been spent? We'll never know, but it's a sad prospect to consider. Personally, I don't think they were ready to surrender before hand; reading JLD made me aware of how much tension there was behind the scenes and I don't think the relevant parties, or the Emperor could have been persuaded to act any sooner without knowing of the immediate and utter destruction that hit them. Hell, even the bombing of Nagasaki itself wasn't enough to spur them to action.

There's also a lot that is said and to be said about Nagai himself, losing everything really gave him a lot of insight into what was important. Previously he was devoted to victory for Japan; now he is devoted to World Peace. He learnt a lot both from his background as a Christian and what he saw in the days following the bombing and yet while he is a Christian and that's important to him, it doesn't cloud the story from being understood by anyone of any religion.

"...the Japanese, the first and only people to have suffered an atomic holocaust, have a vocation and a mission to abolish war, especially nuclear war, from the face of the earth." I agree 100% with Nagai but I would extend it even further. I'd say that the US, as the cause of the nuclear holocaust, has that same duty. We can go in circles on whether dropping the bomb saved lives or not but the fact is as we've learnt 60 years later, it had unknown and undreamed of effects, we can't let that happen again to further generations. One of the mottos of Nagasaki is a prayer that Nagasaki will be the last atomic wasteland, and I dread to think of 60 years later, us not learning from our history and doing it somewhere again. And "us" in this case is all people of the world. I cringe every time I hear about a country having nuclear weapons and threatening to test, haven't we learnt anything? Anything at all? But more on that later.

In Nagai's accounts on the incident from various POVs, the lack of news flow in light of the war was made obvious. Some were aware that a bomb had been dropped on Hiroshima and equated it with what happened to them while others had no idea what this was that had happened to them.

"Pumps, hoses, water tanks, energetic people--anything or anyone capable of quenching those flames had vanished in a moment." And there again is testament to the long acting power of the bomb--not only its immediate effects on those who were burnt but it's long impact due to the doctors being killed--or even when they were alive as in Nagai's case, they had such limited supplies. Even if they were physically capable of helping the victims, they had no tools with which to do it. "...We were the heroic soldiers of the era of Showa..." like the samurai that had come and gone before them, they worked and sacrificed themselves for their country. They did what was asked of them despite the factors against them.

The bamboo spear against the atomic bomb! I felt the same as Nagai did when he mentioned this, not just Japan but no one could compare with or fight against this new force. None of the weapons that had worked in the old days, even in the earlier battles of WW2 could even compare with the mighty force of the atomic bomb.

...to be continued

Journal Entry 3 by mcarleo1 from South Nyack, New York USA on Sunday, February 5, 2006
Looking forward to reading, passed on from SKingList on her surprise visit.

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