There are some things for which silence may be better suited than words as a means of expression. I think that may be true for August 6 and 9. Any words I come up with seem inadequate; a single sheet of paper says more.
So I read today. A lot. And reflected. Even more. And then I read again.
I pondered things like the clarity of vision that hindsight offers, and couldn't decide if the historiography of the decision making adds or diminishes from the humanistic questions about peace and nuclear disarmament.
I thought about the elderly survivors of Hiroshima and words escaped me.
I thought about the long dead decision-makers of the day and noted how their actions ushered in the geo-political shape of my childhood, even though I wouldn't yet be born for some 15 years after the fact.
Then I thought about the movements that grew from the events of that day and pondered again the passage of time and the observance of anniversaries and the ways that remembering changes as we continue to do it. Remembering isn't learning, I reminded myself, though it can be. I always try to remember, and I try to do it differently, so that I can continue to learn. But I don't know if it's successful, or if I'm just engaging in rituals.
One thing that did strike me differently, this year as I read and reflected and pondered: I noticed in all the historical discussions, how the atomic bomb decisions were all focused on the question of ENDING the war. Political and military leadership alike were all concentrated on how to end the second world war.
It led me to ask if contemporary political and military leadership really does that anymore. I'm not sure that they do. It then occurred to me that WWII was really the last war we've had that had a clear-cut and demarcated end. And the dropping of the atomic bomb, was connected to that end. I'll not say if it was necessary to that end, nor if it played a causal role, but clearly it was connected.
We've had other wars since then, but they haven't really had ends; they have instead had exits. I asked myself if the dropping of the atomic bomb didn't have something to do with that, too. I wondered if, in ushering in the Cold War, in representing the impossible alternative, it didn't somehow change the way our political and military leadership came to understand what war and warcraft was, and thus they no longer thought about how to end wars, because it seems to me, that's not the way they think about war anymore.
Just random thoughts, inspired by others' words.
Then I thought again about the lanterns on the river and realized my thoughts and words weren't adequate.
So instead I'll offer silence; for me, this year, it offers a more appropriate means of reflection for august 6 and 9.