
From Burma to Nagasaki: the man who walked through hell - rdl
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/jul/26/nagasaki-man-who-walked-through-hell-jan-bras
======
nicholas73
>“Well, chance is a funny thing,” he says. “Why should I be angry about the
bad things that occur and still accept the good things? I really do not
understand life. I do not know what it’s all about.”

Remarkable wisdom in this quote.

~~~
gambiting
"This particular guard had never beaten him and had always been polite. The
guard saluted Bras. Bras looked away, refusing to return the salute.

“Until now, I regret it,” Bras says. “I often think of it.”"

This is also very profound, it's usually things we haven't done which come
haunting us through the years.

------
rdl
What struck me is how much better the world is today; aside from the risk of
global thermonuclear war, a WW2-scale war is essentially impossible, and even
smaller conflicts are becoming less frequent and shorter duration.

And how he responded to all of this -- became a doctor, spent the rest of his
life trying to minimize suffering in the world. And still believes dropping
the bomb was right.

~~~
llamataboot
I'm not sure how you can say this with such certainty. We're less than two
generations out from the last "world war", we arguably have other countries
and regions that would be involved in the next world war, and resources
continue to get more scarce without any sign that the globe (and the
developed, industrialized countries) have learned to "share"

~~~
colechristensen
There are no long-term resource worries in the developed world.

This goes against the folk-wisdom and fear-mongering present in a lot of
popular culture, but it isn't true.

In the developed world fertility rates are below unity. Oil, at it's recent
peak was competitive with solar. Resources aren't going to run out, the prices
are just going to change – some resources will have to be more aggressively
recycled, others will have to be replaced. Billionaires are thinking about
asteroid mining. Nobody in the developed world is going to start wars over
shortages.

There's a huge amount of arable land which is either unused or grown with only
the most primitive techniques. Modern agriculture requires a fairly advanced
economy, but it is orders of magnitude more productive.

"Resources are scarce" is a very believable lie, and it's easy to misuse
statistics to prove it's true.

Remember "peak oil"? It wasn't true before and now nobody really cares that
much.

The best car in the world is American and electric. In a few years they'll be
selling one suitable for the middle class. We don't _need_ oil for energy, but
we're going to use it until the economies of developing technology overtake
the increasingly more costly fossil fuels.

In a generation or two people will stop fearing nuclear, and fusion will
become economically viable.

~~~
rdl
I think the change is more that while there are resource worries, solving them
through technology (and politics) is the only option.

Modern resource worries would only be made worse through armed conflict over
those resources, for basically all parties.

~~~
dredmorbius
Sander van der Leeuw (University of Arizona/Santa Fe Institute) takes the view
that we've _gotten into_ our current predicament through technology:

"Most people in both politics and general society think that we need to
_innovate_ our way out of the sustainability problems that we're having. _What
we forget in saying this is that we innovated our way into this problem in the
first place._ "

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J0101mkOuGE](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J0101mkOuGE)

Transcript/discussion:

[https://www.reddit.com/r/dredmorbius/comments/3efobv/sander_...](https://www.reddit.com/r/dredmorbius/comments/3efobv/sander_van_der_leeuw_the_origins_of_cities_lie/)

------
philliphaydon
While I gather he has never forgiven Japan, what struck me was despite
everything, not all Japanese believed in what they were doing. And still
respected those men and offered food. There's good everywhere even in the
worst of times.

------
euske
Oh my goodness. I am reading this at work and I am crying (sorry, boss).
Partly because of the story itself, but also because of the realization that
Japan (which I happen to be a citizen of) has learned very little since then.
Thanks for sharing a great article.

~~~
sdrothrock
> but also because of the realization that Japan (which I happen to be a
> citizen of) has learned very little since then.

Could you shed some light on what you're referring to?

~~~
euske
Recent resurgence of the "national pride" thing. The forced reinterpretation
of the Constitution. Unreasonable hatred towards neighboring countries (China
and Korea in particular). And worst of all, we aren't taught anything about
these Japanese atrocities at school. Japan is still enjoying willful
ignorance.

~~~
markburns
> And worst of all, we aren't taught anything about these Japanese atrocities
> at school.

This bit is probably the hardest part. I have spoken to many people here in
Japan who downplay, or justify, or say it is so long ago, or say that Japan
has forgiven America, so naturally Korea and China must forgive Japan. "We've
apologised, what more do they want? They are all crazy." ad infinitum. Or
simply people that deny anything happened or think that I must hate Japan to
even mention things like this.

Then you have politicians stirring things up and denying it etc.

What I think anyone really wants is simple plain humble acceptance of what
happened. It seems the apology carries so much weight in Japan that that
should just be the end of it, and everything should be forgotten.

Except that seems to be a purely uniquely Japanese way of looking at the
world, and doesn't really translate to other cultures. Germany and the US
don't sweep under the carpet the Atom bomb or the concentration camps, and
likewise Japanese people should be taught about Nanking, the POWs, Unit 731
etc.

Just so that the average Japanese citizen doesn't come across on the world
stage as wilfully ignorant or incredibly crass and insensitive. Ideally it
could lead to more than this and improved relations in the area, but at the
very least it would be wonderful for Japanese people to not unintentionally be
saying really hurtful things to still living victims of these events.

I really wish they would teach that stuff in incredible detail. _Then_ maybe
not talk about it, or sweep it under the carpet or whatever.

This national pride combined with ignorance is such a toxic combination.

Edit:

Just to add to this. What I think is particularly tragic, is how specifically
considerate and compassionate the average Japanese person is. It is terrible
that on average, such compassionate, considerate people can end up seeming so
wilfully ignorant or even hateful. When I don't believe this to be the case.

~~~
jpatokal
Japan has apologized repeatedly, paid significant war reparations and signed
peace treaties where both South Korea and China essentially agreed to treat
the case as closed:

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_war_apology_statements...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_war_apology_statements_issued_by_Japan)

Also, the vast majority of Japanese school books _do_ cover the war in
unflinching detail; however, unlike China and South Korea, Japan approves a
whole range of school books, which have widely varying views. There are
Communist textbooks, pro-North Korean textbooks and, yes, far-right textbooks.
One particular series, which led to riots and violence in 2005, ended up being
used by 0.039% of Japan's schools:

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_history_textbook_cont...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_history_textbook_controversies)

The reason the issue lives on is in very large part because, for political
reasons, China and South Korea refuse to let it die. This doesn't excuse the
occasional Japanese right-wing nutjob denying anything happened etc, but then
again, we don't blame Germany when some random neo-Nazi targets a synagogue.

~~~
markburns
I'm talking more about the average response of individuals, a government
apologizing doesn't mean as much if many citizens and some prominent
politicians still deny or downplay it all. I'm talking about the average
individual and people's emotional responses, vs government apologies and
official stances.

I've yet to meet anyone that has studied in depth at school or remembers it.
Most people if they remember or know about it at all, say they studied the
"Nanking controversy" as a brief paragraph on one page.

In general people's responses are more of the downplaying or sweeping under
the carpet type. I think this plays into worsening the relationship. No quiet
contemplation, acceptance of what happened or pause for thought in general.

I've met the son of the rape of a Korean comfort woman forcibly brought to
Japan, he grew up as Zainichi in Japan. He's lived a life as an outsider and
has to hear people suggest that these things didn't happen. As if he shouldn't
exist. So then instead he hears mention of financial reparations and lists of
apologies. Which don't really count for much when it sounds like "I said
sorry, why do you still care about this issue?"

I just wish people here were more compassionate.

~~~
rangibaby
I don't expect German individuals to say sorry for WWII, why should Japanese
be held to a different standard?

~~~
markburns
Neither do I, but I don't expect their prominent politicians to deny the
facts, or average German people to discuss the 'controversy' about the
concentration camps. Or for people to state that a lot of bad stuff happens in
war, so you know people should just forget about the nazis and stop having a
problem with it, and anyway it was so long ago, you know?

Some things are just inappropriate to say, it's about sensitivity.

In general there's not really a time limit on at what point it is appropriate
to start expecting Jewish people to forget about concentration camps. And in
the same way I think that there should some reasonable level of education
about the events here. Just so that people know about it and know when not to
say hurtful things.

It's something that should be taught and remembered and learned from. And
whilst it's also not appropriate to continually labour the point, I also don't
think it's at all appropriate that the average Japanese person really knows
little to nothing about what happened, to the extent of denying it in some
cases. You don't really hear many justifications or downplaying of nazism from
average German citizens, but you really do hear downplaying of it all here.

There are so many people in Japan absolutely incredulous that anyone in China
or Korea should possibly still have any kind of problem with the war, whilst
not being aware of the things that happened.

I cannot imagine hearing anyone from Germany say without ill intent that they
still don't understand why the events of the war are such a big issue for
people that actually experienced it.

