The Moral Vision
The Japanese Experience
~ 180 ~
THE JAPANESE EXPERIENCE
In August 1945, the U.S.A. dropped two atom
bombs on Japan, thereby reducing two of its major
cities to ruins. Strangely enough, the Japanese seem
to bear no grudge against the Americans, for, they
say, it had only reacted to Japan’s violence in the
arena of war. The responsibility, therefore, needs to
be shared by each side. This realistic attitude on the
part of the Japanese has seen them through all kinds
of adversity and brought them to extraordinary
heights of progress in modern times.
Both the big industrial cities, Hiroshima and
Nagasaki, bustling with life, became enormous
areas of devastation in a matter of minutes. Within
a ten-mile radius every kind of life-human, animal
and vegetable was blown to bits. One and half
million people died on the spot. Ten thousand of
them simply disappeared. Yet these cities have now
been built up once again with wide streets, spacious
houses, parks and gardens, all of which have a
modern look. Only one ruined building has been
left as it was, in order to remind one of the grim
