日本が第2次世界大戦で負けてから、きょうで65年になる。敗戦のその日、私は大連の国民学校（小学校）の4年生だった。竹で鉄砲を作って遊んでいたが、日本が負けたと知ってやめた。間もなく大連へはソ連兵が進駐して来ると聞き、鉄砲を見つけられては大変と、急いで処分した。
私は、戦勝国の人々によって、日本の国民はみな奴隷にさせられるのかと思い、生きている心地がしなかった。わが国の軍隊が侵略先で行なって来た残虐な行為からの連想であろう。約1年半後に引き揚げ船で内地へ帰ったときには、『借りぐらしのアリエッティ』一家の引越のように、手に持てるだけのものしか持ち帰れなかったが、故国の土を踏んでほっとした。
いま、わが国は戦争放棄を明記した憲法9条を持っている。これを変えて、愚行を繰り返すようなことがあってはならない。［写真は、薄紫色の花のアサガオ。2010年8月2日、ある幼稚園前で撮影。］
Today, it is the 65th anniversary of Japan's defeat in the World War II. Sixty-five years ago, I was a 4th year pupil of a primary school in Dalian and was playing by making a gun with bamboo. Hearing that the soldiers of USSR would soon come to Dalian to occupy the city, I hastily destroyed the gun and threw it away.
Supposing that all the Japanese would be made slaves by the people of the winning country, I had almost lost the feeling of being alive. This might have been the effect of having heard the evil deeds of Japanese troops in the places they invaded. After about 6 months, we came back to Japan only with things we can have by hands like the house-moving of Borrower Arietty's family, but I felt relieved to be standing on the native land.
Now we have Article 9 of the Constitution of Japan that declared the renunciation of war. We should never change this to repeat the folly. [The photo shows the picot morning glory with an orchid-colored flower. It was taken in front of a kindergarten on August 2, 2010.]
From tweets of yesterday (rephrased)
About Life
[To chiamai] Hi, this is Bon days here to honor the deceased spirits of one's ancestors according to Japanese Buddhist custom. Many persons go to their home town. But we finished the event last month by the local custom of Kanazawa and stay here in the "evacuated" city.
[From chiamai] Interesting. We remember our deceased ancestors and relatives on November 2nd, bringing flowers (chrysanthemums) to the cemeteries. The 'evacuated' city must be fascinating in its own way!
[To chiamai] Tomorrow afternoon I go to Osaka Science Museum to study quantum field theory with citizens by almost vacant train and subway.
About Mathematics
[Retweet of newscientist's words with an addition] "Tide turns against million-dollar P ≠ NP maths proof" (http://bit.ly/dkFu42) – "The internet is making a huge difference to the way mathematicians operate."
About Physics
"Mining for missing matter," Science News (http://bit.ly/aLo2kO) – A popular review of dark matter search experiments.
Science & Technology Review (Lawrence Livermore Natational Laboratory, 2005) (http://bit.ly/bRPbyE) – Issues from May to September include Albert Einstein series (via Internet Scout).
About Science
"A visual history of science, from the pages of Scientific American" (http://bit.ly/bue98S) – With 40 slides including pictures of Marie Curie winning her 2nd Nobel Prize and Albert Einstein proving the principle of equivalence of energy and inertial mass.
Thank you for this post, it is interesting to read about memories of the war ('the War' is still how most people refer to World War II in Italy) in a different part of the world. I heard tales from my father, who was also a child at the time, and from other relatives, but they're all about Italy, where the situation as very complicated, and sad, with the country being split in two and an internal civil war going on. In my 'perennial' travels I've also heard some tales about the end of the war in Germany, and I am learning now something about French resistance, but, as many people in Europe, I tend to forget that the war was going on also in Japan. Obviously I know about Hiroshima and Nagasaki, but perhaps we tend to see them as somehow 'isolated' tragedies, rather than parts of a long standing war. Unfortunately even these events are now sort of fading out, appearing in the news only once per year for a few minutes of 'standard' remebrance. What I admire most of Japanese people, from the very little I know, is your ability to transform a defeat into an internal and moral strenght, as you 'battle' to defend Art.9 seems to demonstrate.
返信削除To Chiara,
返信削除Thanks for your comment. After the World War II, International Military Tribunal for the Far East was held in Tokyo from 1946 to 1948. In this tribunal, the Emperor Hirohito and members of the imperial family were not prosecuted, because the Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers from USA considered prosecuting them would cause difficult problems in occupying Japan. As a result, the reconsideration of the War was insufficient in Japan, and there are many politicians who wish to change Article 9 to make it possible for our nation to engage in wars. This is a very sad and troublesome fact in the present Japan. We hear that in Germany the reflection of the War was made completely. How is the situation in Italy?
Italy is, as usual, quite complicated. A complete reflection on the war, and on the whole fascist period, has not been made, partly due to the fact that Italy was split at some point and in some sense we were a bit on both sides. We certainly celebrate the values of the resistance against fascism, but the 'dark side' of the events tends to be left aside. Unfortunately, still today it difficult to have objectibe historical discussions on that period, as any attempted reflection soon turns into a very warm discussion, if not a fight, whereas a quiet and rational evaluation would really be needed.
返信削除Chiara, thanks a lot for your reply. The situation in your country seems to be similar to that in Japan. Let's spread the voice that we should not have war on the Earth!
返信削除