On This Day: Atomic Bomb Dropped on Nagasaki

(Diary of an Old AI Researcher who is still Programming)

9 August 2019

My hometown is Nagasaki.
On this day, let me quote here Dr. Takashi Nagai's letter.
(The English translation is based on http://www.shin-eiken.com/works/poetry/2019_01.html )

My Beloved Children
An excerpt from a letter by Takashi Nagai - October 30, 1948
from Doves and Wolves, My Beloved Children


My Beloved Children! On that day, you had been waiting for your mother, eagerly, with plums on the plate. Makoto, Kayano, your mother had disappeared from the world, leaving just the rosary. What robbed you of your mother, whom you loved and on whom you depended? The atomic bomb? No, that's just a mass of atoms. It was not the atomic bomb dropped on Urakami that killed your mother. That oh-so-kind mother of yours was killed by the war.

As a war drags on, it is easy to forget its initial causes. At the end of the war, neither winners nor losers recall the reason they made all that fuss.
And the survivors stare at the fierce devastation and all agree, "We've had enough!! War is unbearable! Let us never make war again!"

But after crying out against war, as time passes, we somehow start to change our minds and start longing to make war again. Why can humans be so stupid?

We Japanese citizens put our decision into the Constitution never to make war again.
My children, we can incorporate anything into the Constitution. But the articles of the Constitution must be carried out, and this is a very difficult task for us Japanese. No matter how hard it may be, this is a good Constitution and it must be put into practice. Not only must we obey the Constitution but also protect it from those forces that may try to break it. This is the true voice of the Japanese people, who have been awakened by the devastation of war.

But arguments may be put forth, and the public will be influenced by both sides.
Because of international situations, some Japanese people may cry out that the Constitution be revised and the article denouncing war be deleted.
And such cries may start to sound very reasonable to our ears, and public opinion may lead us to again arm Japan.

But my dearest Makoto and Kayano, I beg you! If Japan should be armed again, you must keep crying out: "No more wars!" Even if you are the only ones left and even if others respond with curses or violence; even if you are despised and thought of as cowards or traitors, make your voices heard loud and clear!

Many might say that if the enemy should attack, we will be slaughtered easily if we have no arms.
But with arms, can we survive at all?
Rather will not those who carry no arms and show no resistance be the ones to survive?

Wolves have sharp fangs and this is why they have been destroyed by human beings. However, doves have nothing which can be perceived as a weapon and still now they are loved by humans and many remain and still soar in the sky.

Protect yourselves with love.
Protect our country with love.
It is with love that humans can join hands and build a beautiful world of peace.

My beloved children,
Love even your enemies. Love, love, love all the way to the end, and so much that there will be no reason for anyone to hate us.
If you love, you will be loved. If you are loved, you will not be destroyed. In a world of love, there is no enemy. With no enemies, there is no war.