We need a worm's eye view

VOX POPULI: ‘Worm’s eye view’ can pave way to eradication of nuclear weapons

http://ajw.asahi.com/article/views/vox/AJ201408060031

Vox Populi, Vox Dei is a daily column that runs on Page 1 of the vernacular Asahi Shimbun.

On Aug. 14, 1945, novelist Jun Takami (1907-1965) wrote in his diary: “Everyone has started saying, ‘Watch out for any bomber flying solo.’ Before, everyone was saying that bombers flying solo weren’t a real threat.”

Takami was referring to the emergent awareness that a B-29 flying solo was more dangerous than a squadron of B-29s. By mid-August 1945, reports of the devastating power of nuclear bombs, both factual and rumored, had reached the Kanagawa Prefecture city of Kamakura, where Takami was residing.

The B-29 bomber Enola Gay destroyed Hiroshima on Aug. 6, 1945. Of the Enola Gay’s crew of 12 airmen, the last surviving member, Theodore “Dutch” Van Kirk, died on July 28 at age 93. Throughout his life, Van Kirk reportedly justified the bombing and never thought it was a mistake.

The atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, hailed by some for ending the war quickly and saving the lives of many American troops, brought honor to the Enola Gay crew and mass destruction to the citizens of those two cities.

Paul Tibbets (1915-2007), the pilot of the Enola Gay, once told The Asahi Shimbun that he was not fighting the people of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, but that he was fighting Japan, the country that had attacked his country.

Not only Tibbets, but also many Americans tend to view the atomic bombings and airstrikes by high-altitude bombers from the perspective of the skies above without considering the massive destruction and loss of civilian lives on the ground below.

On the ground, people were going about their day-to-day lives. Yoko Moriwaki, a first-year student at Hiroshima Kenritsu Dai-ichi Kojo (Hiroshima Prefectural No. 1 High School for Women), went to bed on the night of Aug. 5 after concluding her diary entry with these words: “Work begins tomorrow to prepare for the demolition of homes along the planned fire-blocking belt. I will work as hard as I can.”

Morikawa had no idea of what lay in store the following morning. She died at work near ground zero. She was 13 years old.

We need to have a “worm’s eye view,” not a bird’s eye view, to understand the unspeakably cruel destruction of tens of thousands of lives by a single bomb dropped from a single bomber. I believe this should be the starting point of any movement for total nuclear disarmament.

--The Asahi Shimbun, Aug. 6

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