Originally published on the CGS blog on July 30, 2008.
This summer I traveled to Japan after indefatigably working for two months to save up for a two way ticket and a JR train pass. During the three weeks of my stay I came across many new and interesting cultural quirks. For example the Japanese make a point slurp as loudly as they can when eating noodles as eating quietly may offend the cook or when going up the escalator they stand on the left side and pass on the right. Another is when a Japanese person wishes to express his or her gratitude, they lightly bow their head.
I also got a chance to become more acquainted with Japan’s fascinating history which is given so little attention in both American and European public schools. In Tokyo I visited the Edo Museum which illustrated the highly sectarian society existing in Japan until the second half of the 19 century. In Kyoto I went to a local museum dedicated to the life of their national idol: Sakamoto Ryoma, the man who fought for the westernization of Japan, which allowed it to become a world power. A stop in one of the cities, however, left a heavy feeling. Though more than half a century has passed since the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima by the United States, killing 140,000 people and razing 90 percent of the buildings, there remains a kind of melancholy, unpleasant aura amidst the hustle and bustle of the city.
The Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum has numerous artifacts which belonged to victims of the bombing. A small tin lunchbox with a deformed top filled with ashes instead of the food which had been placed there. A red half melted tricycle belonging to a little boy who died from radiation the same day the bomb fell. Clothing with holes in it, created by the heat from the explosion. After seeing the horror which was inflicted on these people it seems unfathomable that weapons which brought such devastation still exist in the world and are still being developed and possessed by the world’s leading countries – United States, Russia, China, France, and the United Kingdom. A study jointly conducted by University of Colorado and Rutgers University found that in case of a nuclear war the detonation of “only 0.03 per cent of the explosive power in the world’s arsenals,” would bring about the death of more than a billion people from radioactive fallout, increased UV radiation, climate change, and starvation. This reiterates how important it is for countries to come together and begin taking measures in reducing their supply of nuclear weapons. Both Russia and China recently made statements that they wish to take part in assembling a document banning the production of fissile materials used for other than non peaceful purposes and laying the ground for an active reduction in the world’s nuclear arms. This gives hope that other countries such as Iran will also begin to cooperate with the rest of the world and increase transparency of its nuclear programs. The conference on nuclear non-proliferation is scheduled for 2010.
