日本語版は8月6日をご覧下さい。
I watched Spielberg's "War of the World" last night. The army bravely fights hopeless battles against unidentified enemies that intend to invade the Earth with overwhelming force of arms. Basically the same thing happens in "Aliens", which I saw a few days ago. Future Marine Corps fights, though helplessly, against aliens that are powerful and overwhelmingly large in number. Those are somewhat my favorites, and I see them repeatedly. However, I looked at them from a different perspective this time.
These are the occasions we really have to use our military forces. I am not talking about alien species threats. Army should be deployed only to protect mankind from threats that are threats universally. It may be specific terrorism or riots, but for the interest of mankind as a whole. Therefore the world should have only one multi-national army. There should never be any army for one country to intimidate other, to kill each other or to invade territories of other countries. A country must never keep in its possession nuclear weapons, nor hide secret weapons to fight another. There should never be an army that turns some soil into a battle field killing innocent civilians and burning down schools and hospitals in order to destroy one particular terrorist group.
Here is what I always have in mind. Among all animals on this planet, only human kills each other for lands or resources. Being superior to all animals, human is the most unwise. Live, eat, raise children and die are everything that matters to animals. Only human is in endless need of something more. Only human leads himself to misery because of these desires. Human came in possession of higher intelligence than he can take control of. He hasn't yet figured out what to do with this intelligence. Intelligence too big for its vessel is always turned to wrong directions.
Sixty-six years ago today, an A-bomb exploded in the sky over Nagasaki. One of the two days when unbalanced human intelligence, greed and arrogance came to fruition in the worst way. There is a famous inscription on a cenotaph in Hiroshima: "We will never repeat the mistake again", is that promise kept? If we limit the scope of discussion only to Japan, it has, in a way, not repeated the same mistake yet since it made its promises 66 years ago when it renounced military force and pledged that it would never have war again. But things are not at all changed with the rest of the world. Not in the least.
Some years ago, I had a dream. It was an ordinary autumn day. A boring but peaceful day. However, it was informed that some country declared war against Japan, and that it would start on the next day. I walked out of our house. I saw the brook that runs in front of the house. I saw the maple tree woods that has turned red. I heard the birds chirping. All indicated nothing but peace and ordinariness. But tomorrow, this place was going to be turned into a war zone. Someone decided it. This valley and woods are going to be scorched, and dead bodies of small animals and humans are going to flow down the brook. And nothing in this scenery had any kind of responsibility in what was going to happen. I made an apology to what I was seeing. Being a human, I had to. And there was nothing else I could do.
Unlike usual dreams, this one didn't go away even after I woke up. Because it is something that can absolutely happen. Maybe not to me or in this place, but it is something actually happening somewhere in the world. I can never forget that dream. Surely it was a dream, but I actually experienced the sorrow. There are thousands of reasons why there should not be a war, but what I felt in that dream was sorrow. No ethical reason or argument is needed here. There just can't be any war because there shouldn't be any war.
Although human can easily turn to wrongdoing because of the unbalanced intelligence, he also has a heart to care and sympathize that excels other animals. I hope that every country in the world thinks with its heart about the sorrow brought by war.