War, war war!

“Miyuki Bridge was covered with severely burned people. I held the camera up, but I couldn’t snap the shutter.  Finally, after about 20 minutes of hesitation, I took my first picture.”  It was around 11 AM, August 6, 2,270 meters from the hypocenter. Roughly 3 hours after the atomic bomb exploded.  

Many people believe the domed skeletal remains of a grand governmental building, which has become an icon of the site, was centre of the explosion.  

Actually the bomb hit a spot ~200 meters to the east of that building.  Everything near the centre of explosion was obliterated.  That building could not have survived had it been any closer.  

Many people were vaporised by the explosion and intense heat instantly.  Many more died instantly.  Most of the people within kilometres of the explosion died within the month, if not immediately, horribly.  140,000 of them.  Countless more died years later, from diseases caused by the long term effects of the radiation. 

Everyone agrees that the atomic bomb is a horrible horrible weapon, that it should never be used.  Yet someone finds a reason to use it.  The Americans claim that it was necessary to stop the Soviet Communists from grabbing more territory and influence.  A necessary evil to stop a even greater evil.  

Japan, 70 years after World War II, is still haunted by it. People from many countries come to Hiroshima to pay respects to the dead.  One phenomenon puzzles me.  We saw many foreigners, including many Chinese, both Putonghua speaking and Cantonese speaking, in the markets and restaurants in Osaka. We saw many foreigners, but few Chinese, at the Atomic Bomb Memorial in Hiroshima, whether Putonghua speaking or Cantonese speaking.  When we got to Fukuoka, the Chinese appear en masse again.  We wonder why that is.  

Wars are horrible things.  Most people who die and suffer in wars do not deserve to suffer and die like that.  Yet someone always finds a reason to pursue a war.  Always.    It seems everywhere I go, war is always present, or threatening.  When I was in Vietnam, there were many remains of the Vietnam War in the 1960s and 70s: prisons, tunnels, museums, …  In Cambodia, there are those killing fields from the genocide of the 1970s, and the aftermath of that is still stark .  In Rwanda, the numerous memorials, skulls and bones from the ethnic genocide of 1974.  When I was in Myanmar around 2014-18, I did not realise it was only a relatively peaceful and hopeful interlude between civil wars.  In China, there is, of course, the Sino-Japanese War of the 1930s-1940s, and other horrible conflicts. In Korea, we went to the DMZ (Demilitarized Zone), which reminds everyone the Korean War, which took place 60 years ago, is not over.  When we went to Israel in early 2010s, Israel seemed calm.   But Israel and Palestine has been fighting, on and off, for 70 years, and have not really stopped.  When I visited Russia in the 1990s and later 2010s, Russian seemed calm as well.  Yet the Russian army is now fighting and occupying a large part of Ukraine, with many dying and more to come.  

Why do humans keep on saying war is a horrible thing, yet always find a way to justify  pursuing it?  Or using war to threaten and pressure other people to submit to their will?