"The atomic bomb saved my life"

[Hariti]

I read something today that truly left me speechless. I was in class, and we were discussing WWII, and I was reading the testimony of someone who was going to die; he was trained as to fly a Kamikazi. He was going to fly on the 15th of August, 1945 and crash his aircraft into an American ship, killing himself in the process. He was saved because the Emperor of Japan surrendered less than a day before he was scheduled to die. When I read this line in his testimony, it gave me goosebumps: "The atomic bomb saved my life."

I guess it just goes to show that there are many sides to any story. This isn't strictly religious, but the realization that this statement gave me certainly was spiritual in nature, almost and epiphany. I had never even thought about what the end of the war must have meant for all the frightened young Japanese men and women who had war looming over their heads like the specter of death. I'm just... gobsmacked.

[Morbid]

I read something today that truly left me speechless. I was in class, and we were discussing WWII, and I was reading the testimony of someone who was going to die; he was trained as to fly a Kamikazi. He was going to fly on the 15th of August, 1945 and crash his aircraft into an American ship, killing himself in the process. He was saved because the Emperor of Japan surrendered less than a day before he was scheduled to die. When I read this line in his testimony, it gave me goosebumps: "The atomic bomb saved my life."

I guess it just goes to show that there are many sides to any story. This isn't strictly religious, but the realization that this statement gave me certainly was spiritual in nature, almost and epiphany. I had never even thought about what the end of the war must have meant for all the frightened young Japanese men and women who had war looming over their heads like the specter of death. I'm just... gobsmacked.

I think as Americans in particular we have and probably always will have (to the victor go the spoils) this tainted view of not only World War II, but of any war in which the US has been involved in.  The problem is, that often times in War, when the war is over, the victor takes it upon themselves to write the history books, often times leaving themselves in a cleaner image.  So it's easily forgotten that there is in fact two sides to every story.  Many Americans don't realize or don't know that Japanese soldiers in WWII had no choice in the matter.  Japan was an Empire, and acted as such.  We often forget that Americans would use flame throwers to essentially practice a scorched Earth policy.