The Amazing Race > The Amazing Race Discussion
TAR20 Leg 11: Best showcasing of Japan ever?
kenchan:
Wow, the TAR RFF Senior Leadership Team just took over this thread...! :o
This is turning out to be an interesting discussion. Any conversation related to war is bound to be emotional. And just as I imagined, there will be people taking sides, justifying certain outcomes with facts. It's hard not to be biased.
However, I'd like us not to fall into that trap.
The thing that was remarkable about Nakajo's "Grandpa ..." book wasn't just about the detail that he went into about the events of the time and the various debates among Japan's military leaders and the Emperor following the two bombs dropped in early August 1945 leading up to the Unconditional Surrender. It was about how he, as a teenager, felt during those years.
You just cannot debate over how one feels.
During the war, Nakajo believed that going into the military to serve the country and the citizens around him was the ultimate heroic act. Then the war ended, and faced something he hadn't anticipated. The very people that cheered him on as he left for military school turned their backs completely against him after the unconditional surrender. Just in a matter of 9 days, his world had been flipped upside down. What he had believed in was for years was no longer true.
Japan had a severe shortage of food and energy around that time, as the government had poured resources into the war. So he's depressed and starving.
And not-so-coincidentally, according to the book, the GHQ (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supreme_Commander_of_the_Allied_Powers) had instituted a War Guilt Information Program (WGIP), which Nakajo mentioned was employing the strategy of "The Peace of Carthage" (=the brainwashing the Romans did to make the people of Carthage believe they were guilty for the war).
There aren't a lot of details on WGIP in English, but there are several in Japanese including http://bit.ly/Jl0jAk and http://bit.ly/cRbgCN. Here's one that is written in English, but by a Japanese historian: http://articles.baltimoresun.com/1993-11-10/news/1993314036_1_japan-war-guilt-war-of-aggression
And it doesn't stop there. There are other stories about how the GHQ had controlled Japanese media until 1952. (See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supreme_Commander_of_the_Allied_Powers#Media_censorship ) This resulted in a stripping down of the Japanese culture, which in many respects, still has an impact today (ever seen a Japanese person have a difficult time saying "no"? Especially in business?). And how the GHQ basically wrote the Japanese Constitution which is still in effect for the most part, including the controversial Article 9 (which prohibits a national military force for offensive purposes).
The Japanese were told that the war was their fault while being stripped of their cultural identity. And Nakajo got that message loud and clear. Life was very very difficult. He contemplated terminating his life.
Just think about the power that the US Government had over Japan during those 7 years.
Not saying whether the Japanese deserved it or not.
How would you feel if you were a soldier in training during the war? In Japan? In one of the Allied Nations? What would you have done after the war?
Just let it all sink in.
I think it's rather remarkable that Nakajo found meaning in his life (if you read Japanese, you'll find out how in the book - I won't spoil it for you ;)) and later on became a CEO of a reputable company. Of course, he wasn't the only one who survived that era, but he certainly had a dramatic story to tell. His granddaughter certainly benefited from his story, which helped her get a glowing review from her history teacher, and her classmates at the Masters School got an insider's view at what it was like to be a Japanese in 1945.
(I really hope this book gets translated to English.)
And if one person can tell such a dramatic story, just think about the 20-30 million untold stories. It doesn't matter where those people are from or who killed them. It's just painful to think about it, but we must.
And I believe that's why TAR makes these kinds of tributes.
Thank you Phil, Bertram, Elise, the camera/sound crews, the staff members at WRP and at the City of Hiroshima.
starrynight:
Most people who watch The Amazing Race won't find such tributes very instructional imo. I'm sure most are aware of Hiroshima, and they are unlikely to want to look further into it.
kenchan:
--- Quote from: starrynight on May 12, 2012, 07:34:00 AM ---Most people who watch The Amazing Race won't find such tributes very instructional imo. I'm sure most are aware of Hiroshima, and they are unlikely to want to look further into it.
--- End quote ---
That's why this forum exists, right?
This thread has been at the top for a while and has over 2100 views. So it does look like there is interest.
Any racers wanna chime in on this subject?
bcp19:
--- Quote from: kenchan on May 12, 2012, 11:36:23 AM ---
--- Quote from: starrynight on May 12, 2012, 07:34:00 AM ---Most people who watch The Amazing Race won't find such tributes very instructional imo. I'm sure most are aware of Hiroshima, and they are unlikely to want to look further into it.
--- End quote ---
That's why this forum exists, right?
This thread has been at the top for a while and has over 2100 views. So it does look like there is interest.
Any racers wanna chime in on this subject?
--- End quote ---
I recently read a book titled "At Dawn We Slept", which was a sort of documentary leading up to the attack on Pearl Harbor. The author had interviewed numerous Japanese personnel and tried to show an accurate picture of the events that lead up to it. I found it a very interesting book. I also recently read "The Last Stand of the Tin Can Sailors", which was about the battle of Leyte Gulf and a book about the Indianapolis, which some think transported the bombs. A friend of my parents grew up near the site of the first A-bomb test (her parents actually worked on the project), and there was a lot of controversy over that first test, as some theorists thought that it would result in a chain reaction that would burn the atmosphere completely off the planet. Also, the use of the bombs was a huge gamble, since the threat of more was just a bluff. I admit seeing the memorial at Hiroshima was thought provoking. There is a lot to be learned from the past, and it is to be hoped that such lessons can be carried forward so they are not repeated.
I had a few uncles that were in various areas of the war, but now it's too late to be able to ask questions about their experiences, which would have been interesting to hear first person. I know one was a marine in the south Pacific, but had no idea where he actually was, though he recognized some of the places from the movie South Pacific.
kenchan:
bcp19,
thanks for the info on that book. I'll have to check it out.
Sidenote - just saw a tweet regarding a protest in Hiroshima against resuming operations at a nuclear power plant (via @monjukun, an anti-nuclear energy activist):
https://twitter.com/#!/monjukun/status/201535702985490433
Obviously, Hiroshima isn't the only place where anti-nuclear energy demonstrations are taking place, but I would imagine people in Hiroshima are considerably more sensitive regarding radiation than the rest of Western Japan. (Western Japan runs on a completely separate power grid from the Eastern half
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