Tuesday 17 January 2012

Forgiveness

A young Japanese woman changed the attitude of many after she felt betrayed. During WW11 she believed the Militarist propaganda, applauded their hectoring, cheerfully lived on half-rations, given up a year of high school to labour in an aeroplane factory and been ready to die fighting with a bamboo spear. She thought of her many young friends who died from tuberculosis or in air raids, and of countless soldiers and civilians who perished on the Asian mainland and the Pacific islands. It was especially painful to remember her “heroes’, the tragically young kamikaze. They had believed they died for a most noble cause. Instead, it was for a lie, foisted on the people by robber generals. Three million Japanese and countless non-Japanese had died for a lie. www.satokokitahara.com