8th December of 1941―a far but close past?
【8th December of 1941―a far but close past?】
1. Why I Want to Know More about WWI&II
2018.12.8 in my favourite cafe called Cafe NERO in London
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8th December. What day is today for you?
Christmas lights decorate towns. Most university students are pushed with studies including me. In Japan, we call December as Shiwasu (師走). The character of 師 stands for a monk, while 走 stands for running. As you can imagine, everything seems to rush in this month.
Although today’s topic is somewhat sensitive, I am not implying any political assertion here. Today is the day when the Pacific War broke out.
I am not a military nerd nor a big fan of demonstration in front of the Diet. However, as a Japanese who has grown up in a nation holding a specific historical lesson and a grandchild of those who survived the era, I have been interested in the record and commemoration of wars during the 20th century. To be honest, I have too many things to write about this topic. So that, I would like to divide this into three articles. I am delighted if you would read this till the end.
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1. Why I Want to Know More about WWI&II
Thirteen years ago. When I was in the fourth grade of my primary school, I got homework. “Listening to and writing down the story about the Pacific War from your grandparents”. That was the 60th anniversaries of the end of the Pacific War. While being bothered by the buzz of cicadas and drinking a glass of quite cold wheat tea, I first came to know that my grandmother was the atomic bomb survivor. At that time, she was twelfth years old, living in Nagasaki-city, two kilometres away from the centre of an explosion. Even now, she vividly recalls the purple clouds flashed after the explosion, the fragments of broken windows stuck in walls and severely wounded neighbours. Yet, a small mountain located between the centre of the explosion and her house saved her and her family’s lives.
After the war, my grandmother married my grandfather, who had been working for a trading company and accompanied his transfer to New York. Even though she could not speak English at all in the beginning, without almost anyone’s help, she raised up three children including my mother there. Turning 84 years old now, she is still good at English and tells me about her travels around the world.
While being suffered from the war with the U.S., she lived her crucial period of life there. In this sense, she precisely realises the after-war balanced values. I have never heard any offensive word toward specific countries from her, never.
Since the homework, I have had a deep attachment to knowing about the war. At the end of my secondary school, I encountered Ms Yoko Kato’s famous book called Soredemo-Nihonjin-ha-Senso-
In my university, I belong to Prof. Takayuki Tokura’s seminar studying modern history of politics and journalism. I will not forget the days probing deeply into a matter of a veiled historical fact.
Moreover, Europe, where I am now studying abroad, had the centenary of WWI this year. In a class titled ‘Conflict and Commemoration’, we discuss the topics surrounding WWI from perspectives of various countries and social classes.
My friends and I sometimes wonder why I study this theme. Well, I have three reasons why I would not like to stop studying.
1. There are still many things that have not been unveiled.
2. We seem to be the last generation having war-experienced families.
3. Human beings appear to repeat the same faults over time and space.
Therefore, I suppose my generation, occasionally called Millennial, should face the past that seems to be far but close to us. As well as the dimension of a ‘harmed’ past, facing with ‘harm’ the past generation had done should be needed.
I place this as my life-work differentiated from my work. Every time I visit foreign countries, I will face with the history the country bears. Inside my country, I would like to listen to as many stories as possible and to record them.
I am pleased if you would feel sympathy with a sense of mission to know more about the wars. Of course, I would like to welcome other ways of thinking. Thank you so much for reading my blog, today!
