Hiroshima: Has the ground zero of the nuclear age become too ‘normal’?

By jimcork AT 03.27.08 03:40PM

This might have been an interesting article in the 1950s or 1960s, when Japan was recovering from the war and Hiroshima was rebuilding itself.  American visitors to Japan might have been surprised to see the first Japanese McDonalds open in 1971.  But to read this kind of condescension in 2008 is beyond belief.  63 years after the city was destroyed, why SHOULDN’T the people of Hiroshima be living normal lives?  Why shouldn’t they be getting married, having lattes, or eating okonomiyaki?  Would Mr. Rosenbaum prefer that Hiroshima remained a pile of rubble?

If he had actually talked to someone while he was there, he might have discovered just how people remember the atomic bombing.  When I lived near Hiroshima 8 years ago, I knew people who could remember the day the mushroom cloud appeared over the mountains.  They remembered the thousands of people who fled the city by walking along the river.  They learned the lessons of World War II very well, which is why attempts to rebuild the country’s military and adopt a more aggressive foreign policy are usually met with cries of protest, especially from the citizens of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.