From HIROSHIMA-NAGASAKI to You…. ヒロシマ,ナガサキからのお願い

I am a product of war.

I am a product of racism and white supremacy, Japanese imperialism, and global military corporate industrial complex.  I am a product of love.

I am a product. Of people’s minds and hearts. It is not one or the other in any way. Living is complex.  But people reduce things to ONE thing or another ONE THING.

The IMPERIAL ONE.  I hope that we work to Decolonize, De-imperialize our minds.

Is this the only way people see?               Do you see?  

My mother was bombed by the Americans for nearly a year.  Charred bodies, dreams, hopes. Destruction of a cultural self imagined. Towards the American century.

My mother’s sister perished in Hiroshima.  My mother was supposed to go with her that day, but her sister went in place of her.  And then……………the mushroom, the fire.

Then……….the looking and searching.  The stench.  The orange glow sky.  The tears.  The gaping gape, a darkness.  Still here today in the minds and hearts of people who love to destroy and hate.

But until we can be smarter, stronger, more strategic, more concerned, have different worldviews, I offer a prayer.

Prayer:

I KEEP IN MIND, for myself, my mother, and all ancestors, that we seek understanding, thought, peace, connectedness returned and revisited and lived. BUT ALL THIS in CONTEXT OF THOSE WHO WRITE TO ME to tell me that THE ATOMIC BOMBS on JAPAN were NOT ENOUGH and that ALL JAPANESE should’ve been killed. I hear this from some VETS (usually white, black, or Latino), from some Koreans, Filipinos, Chinese), from some Chinese, Koreans, Filipinos, White Australian and White Brits. SO WE LIVE CONNECTED to PASTS of HATRED alongside PASTS of HOPE. May we all Survive with Better Hearts, Intellects, and Strategies……….