scattered on the ground

On the night of July 6th 1945, 131 U.S. B-29's droped hot napalm (firebombed) Kofu, Japan (the city where I now live). It was estimated that about 1027 people were immediately killed durring this one night (and many more critically injured). Only four days later, on July 10th 1945, a second wave of attack came. 600 firebombing B-29s destroyed nearly two-thirds of Kofu. Waves of hot flames engulfed the city. By the end of the war, it is estimated that 78.6% of the city had been destroyed by firebombing.

B-29s. Image taken durring the earlier firebombing of Tokyo in March 1945

********

Just outside the apartment where I live now is the remains of a temple that was destoryed durring the firebombing of July 1945.

(remains of wall and entry stone of temple)

Small pieces of clay roof tile still lay scattered on the ground on the path I ride my bike on from my apartment everyday.
There is an old black-and-white photograph hanging beside the remains of the temple. In the faided photograph you see an image of the small, beautiful, former temple that once stood.
Now, only stone statues, huddled together in a cluster, are what remain of the temple. These statues are covered by a blue corrogated metal roof that was put up after the destruction of the war.

Near the remains of this temple there is a house. Often as I am leaving home on my bike I pass it and see an old obasan (grandmother) sitting with her back bent in the sun. (jizo bodhisattva's and old house behind)

I always smile and say "konichiwa" and she always looks up surprised and greets me too with a beaming face. I wonder now, where she was as a teenager durring the war. Was she living in Kofu then? Did she flee into the surrounding mountains when the warning pamphets were dropped by American troops before the napalm fell? Did she loose her family home? Did she loose any of her family or friends? Unfortunately, she knows no English and I know too little to ask her in Japanese (as well as, I feel it would be to personal a question to ask the sweet old lady). But, I still wonder.

I wonder what it was like for the many people living in Kofu durring the war. I see so few old buildings in the city and know it is because so few remain after the war. I go to Kofu Train Station and I see another black and white photo displayed. This one is a panoramic shot of the city after the July 6th firebombing. There is nothing but ash and rubble and a few people with lost looks in their eyes.

Its not guilt that I feel today, almost 62 years after the firebombing in my city, rather, it is empathy for all these many people that suffered through and died those many years ago. They whisper still to me from the broken tiles of the temple roof that still lay, all these many years later, scattered on the dusty ground.

********

But, as we all know no situation is ever black and white. There is never a simple good vs bad dicotomy in the world.

To illustrate this, take a look at this picture.

This is an image of crew K-65 "The city of Evanstan". This photo was taken just immediately before the crew boarded their planes and firebomb Kofu on July 6th 1945.

Do these look like horrible murderers to you? No, they look like a group of young twenty-something guys. But, indeed, they did fight in a battle that would result in the death of 1000 + civilians that very night.

"What is absurd and monstrous about war is that men who have no personal quarrel should be trained to murder one another in cold blood" - Aldous Huxley

********

The only conclusion I can come to, is that, simply put, war is a horrible, dispicable thing that societies MUST always seek to avoid. Always in wars there are no winners and loosers. All sides loose something precious - be it innocence, empathy, limbs or life.

"There never was a good war or a bad peace"
- Benjamin Franklin

"Today the real test of power is not capacity to make war
but capacity to prevent it" - Anne O'Hare McCormick

grave of the fireflies