In Tokyo Annie, Emily and I spent a few hours in the Japanese War Museum or the rough equivalent of.  It walked you through the ages of the Japanese Military, with a major emphasis on World War II.  Among the exhibits was an entire wall dedicated to the back and forth communication between Japan and the US, attempting to agree upon terms which would end the War against Japan and thus preventing any further actions by Allied forces.  The exhibit basically aims to show that Japan did everything in its power to prevent the ordeal, short of agreeing to the Potsdam Declaration in its state.  The exhibit then moves on to the remainder of the War, which includes the dropping of atomic bombs on first Hiroshima, then Nagasaki, the first of their kind.

To stand in that museum and read, along side of hundreds of other Japanese, was a pretty moving experience.  To know that the actions of your country's government and military, in two simple actions, is responsible for the deaths of over 280,000 people, with tactics never before seen in the history of mankind, is humbling.  It was difficult and my immediate reaction was... I want to stand on a box in this room and apologize.  Dumb, I know, but that's raw emotion.  And yes yes yes, there are many considerations, Japan was not being an "angel", forced laboring, other mass murder, and deaths as result of the causes of the War, but at that moment, it's as if the dropping of the atomic bomb, regardless of whether it was invoked or necessary, was the single worst thing anyone could do.

We wanted to know more.  So we included a quick trip down to Hiroshima, to take in the environment, the A-Bomb Dome and the Atomic Bomb Museum.  I tell you....that place will knock you on your ass.  Not only seeing first hand the utter and total destruction caused by a bomb with this much power, heat, residue, but also how the War up to that point was impacting families of Hiroshima and other cities and towns in Japan and then the aftermath of the bomb and how difficult it was for Hiroshima to get to its feet once again.  The museum has interesting macro-level information as well as micro, very individual stories and how webs of people were impacted by the events of August 4, 1945.  A couple things are very vivid: the stained white walls with black rain, the melted coins from people's pockets, the hand drawn pictures of the scenes of melting flesh and people jumping in rivers done by survivors, and Yuichiro Sasaki's photography exhibit - outlining the days and years in Hiroshima after the bomb was dropped and how difficult it was to actually decide what to do with parts of the city which are now dedicated to memorializing that faithful day.

So....lead by example America, disarm and believe that others will see the light and follow suit.  If you can do that Barak, then you'll be deserving of a Nobel Peace Prize.