Mr.President Obama visited Hiroshima yesterday. It is truethat some say he just wants to leave legacy or he should apologize, but I don'tthink so. Statistics show that majority of us, Japanese people have thesame feeling.
Because he was the firstpresident who visited Hiroshima, which some American people oppose to. Weknow that. When I visited the USS Arizona Memorial, I could not feel easy.
In 1982, I was at Logan junior high school, in Utah as anexchange teacher. In social studies class, a boy asked me aquestion. "Mr.Takagi, were they mad at it when atomic bombs weredropped?"
I was upset because it wascompletely beyond expectations and I was not ready to answer such aquestion. However it let me think about the question.
Two of my uncles werekilled in Leyte island. Am I angry about it? My answer is no. That is not just because I was born after the war or my uncles might havekilled Americans. But my feeling was just like the boy's one in Logan.
I mean we were born afterthe war, in different countries. American textbooks tell them it was aright decision to drop the bomb over Hiroshima. Still that boy felt forpeople who lived there.
Some people say this ishypocrisy because the U.S. has the most nuclear weapons and Japan is under thenuclear umbrella. That is true. They say, "Look at theneighbors. They have dictators and many atomic bombs."
I have a friend inHiroshima. His father was killed by the atomic bomb and he said "Pa,this is enough, isn't it?" when the president visitedHiroshima."