Japanese thought on Americans now?

First, in response to the memories of these disastrous events, it would be interesting to see if American youths 60 years from now will remember what happened on 9/11, and what it meant. The ignorance of the Japanese youth about August 6 and 9 has much to do with the education they receive and the peacetime economy in which they've grown up. Many Japanese kids hardly even know that their country was once engaged in war with the US, a country they've come to idolize. I suspect that the way in which future generations of Americans remember (or forget) 9/11 will have much to do with how the United States' relationship with Afghanistan and the Middle East develops.

As for how the Japanese feel today about Americans dropping the bomb, or whether they blame the government, the answer is no different than if we were to ask whether Americans feel that the dropping of the bombs were justified -- there is no unified opinion. Among the individuals introduced in the film, we see at least one survivor who is angry at the Americans for dropping the bomb, while another blames the Japanese government. Most of the Americans interviewed had no regrets about dropping the bomb, while another (shown in the archival TV footage) had great remorse.

The thing is, that history in Japanese schools is very patchy. They don't learn anything about World War II, NOTHING. And the people who were there, did experience the war, most of them just want to move past it, it's very hard for them to talk about it.

I lived in Nagasaki for about a year and a half, and the people there were always very kind to me (I'm American) and never hesitated to help me if I was lost or in want of something (I went to the police post by a park at one time, asking for directions to a club and they sat me down, made me tea, and chatted while another looked through a book of Nagasaki maps!). Of course, everyone has preconceptions and stereotypes, but the average person knows that Americans, or anyone from any other country aren't bad or "the enemy."

My host father, in a conversation with him, said something very insightful: "The war was bad, very bad. The Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor and the Americans bombed Nagasaki and Hiroshima. The Japanese were bad, and the Americans were bad. But now we are friends, you are living in my house, I make you breakfast every morning and eat dinner with you every night. Isn't it great? Aren't we lucky to be friends now?"

Great words, Otou-san!

The main point of this documentary was to recognize that the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings were terrible, never mind the reasons or motivations behind it. WAR IS TERRIBLE. This documentary recognizes it, and the point it is driving home is that this should NEVER be forgotten and we, everyone needs to realize that we are not so different, despite our appearances, thought process, and languages, we are all human, what's do different about that.

Yes, these words sounds purple and pretty, but what if everyone decided to acknowledge the fact that there are humans here, not different species? I hate the term "race", what the hell is that? My race is not Caucasian, African, Asian or what have you (those are ethnicities, by the way). I'm part of the human race, I'm not an alien, for crying out loud.

Hey, their thinking is 2000 years out of date. No wonder they forgot that incident...