Hiroshima mon amor

I suppose Americans will always feel Japan deserved having two A-bombs dropped on it for the massacre at Pearl Harbor. At least that is what Donald Trump is suggesting. If it is any consolation to the Donald, the current Japanese PM offered deep repentance for Japan's actions during WWII, but for many Japan will never be sorry enough.

We had a long ugly war with Japan that saw many dead, but couldn't possibly compare to what China suffered during WWII. China lost an estimated 14 million people. Still, none of this justified dropping atomic bombs on Japan, especially with Japan on the edge of surrender. The only thing left to discuss were the terms, which was going on at the time. It seems Truman wanted to speed up the process before the Soviet Union tried to make more territorial claims to the region. Plus, try out his new toys.

One can argue that Japan hasn't been overly contrite over the years. MacArthur was never able to wrangle an apology out of Hirohito, although the emperor purportedly warned that bombing Pearl Harbor would be self-destructive. Nevertheless, the empire was abolished and a new parliamentary form of government put in place, which helped speed Japan's post-war recovery and has remained very resilient. Japan is now counted as one of our closest allies.

Obama going to Hiroshima was meant to put the matter to rest once and for all. But, Trump and other Republicans work from the old Southern adage, Never Forget, preferring to keep Japan at arm's length. Funny for a man who prides himself so much on his great negotiating skills with Asians. He probably thinks Japan has gotten the better of the deal since WWII, and that Obama's visit represents the end of his "apology tour," as Charles Krauthammer put it.

In his speech, Obama no more apologized for the events of WWII than did Shinzo Abe. He offered his regrets and urged listeners to push for a world without nuclear weapons, referring to it as a "moral revolution,." This is ever more important with world leaders and would-be leaders both playing the "nuclear card."

Nuclear disarmament is something sane persons can agree on. The US has in place non-proliferation treaties with Japan and other countries to avoid any further escalation of arms in the Pacific Rim. However, the US and Russia have to greatly reduce their massive arsenals if they expect other countries to honor these agreements. There are the many open nuclear weapons programs like that in India and Pakistan, and "secret programs" like that in Israel. It is little wonder Iran wanted to join the club.

Obama has waited a little too long to launch this "moral revolution." It would have been better to have made it the cornerstone of his foreign policy and begun de-escalation when he first came into office. We have had so many missed opportunities in this regard, the most infamous one being the Reykjavik Summit when Gorbacev was apparently willing to negotiate a full nuclear disarmament agreement if the Reagan administration was willing to give up its strategic defense initiative, aka "Star Wars," but sadly there was no deal.

Nevertheless, it was important to have a US President visit Hiroshima and recognize the horror that took place over 70 years ago.

The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire

Welcome to this month's reading group selection. David Von Drehle mentions The Melting Pot , a play by Israel Zangwill, that premiered on Broadway in 1908. At that time theater was accessible to a broad section of the public, not the exclusive domain it has become over the decades. Zangwill carried a hopeful message that America was a place where old hatreds and prejudices were pointless, and that in this new country immigrants would find a more open society. I suppose the reference was more an ironic one for Von Drehle, as he notes the racial and ethnic hatreds were on display everywhere, and at best Zangwill's play helped persons forget for a moment how deep these divides ran. Nevertheless, "the melting pot" made its way into the American lexicon, even if New York could best be describing as a boiling cauldron in the early twentieth century. Triangle: The Fire That Changed America takes a broad view of events that led up the notorious fire, noting the gro

Dylan in America

Whoever it was in 1969 who named the very first Bob Dylan bootleg album “Great White Wonder” may have had a mischievous streak. There are any number of ways you can interpret the title — most boringly, the cover was blank, like the Beatles’ “White Album” — but I like to see a sly allusion to “Moby-Dick.” In the seven years since the release of his first commercial record, Dylan had become the white whale of 20th-century popular song, a wild, unconquerable and often baffling force of musical nature who drove fans and critics Ahab-mad in their efforts to spear him, lash him to the hull and render him merely comprehensible. --- Bruce Handy, NYTimes ____________________________________________ I figured we can start fresh with Bob Dylan. Couldn't resist this photo of him striking a Woody Guthrie pose. Looks like only yesterday. Here is a link to the comments building up to this reading group.

Team of Rivals Reading Group

''Team of Rivals" is also an America ''coming-of-age" saga. Lincoln, Seward, Chase et al. are sketched as being part of a ''restless generation," born when Founding Fathers occupied the White House and the Louisiana Purchase netted nearly 530 million new acres to be explored. The Western Expansion motto of this burgeoning generation, in fact, was cleverly captured in two lines of Stephen Vincent Benet's verse: ''The stream uncrossed, the promise still untried / The metal sleeping in the mountainside." None of the protagonists in ''Team of Rivals" hailed from the Deep South or Great Plains. _______________________________ From a review by Douglas Brinkley, 2005

Dispatches from Vilnius

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