August is a special month in Japan.
Many people go back to their home towns in tolerance with heavily crowded transportation and stay with their families and friends around 15th of August.
For many Japanese people, this period is one of the longest vacations in a year.
We call this period " Obon", literally meaning a tray or a container carrying dishes and glasses filled with offerings on, then "Obon" has been symbolized the activities to welcome the spirits of ancestors in their family.
These two pictures are typical events in Obon period; the upper picture is "Shoryu-Uma", meaning the horses and the cows for the spirits to move around during the "Obon" period.
The lower one is "Torou-Nagashi", a lantern ship to seeing off the spirits back to their places after "Obon" period.
My question is why Japan did not quit the war before Atomic bomb attacks.
Many people go back to their home towns in tolerance with heavily crowded transportation and stay with their families and friends around 15th of August.
For many Japanese people, this period is one of the longest vacations in a year.
We call this period " Obon", literally meaning a tray or a container carrying dishes and glasses filled with offerings on, then "Obon" has been symbolized the activities to welcome the spirits of ancestors in their family.
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| "Shoryu-Uma", Katori city, Japan |
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| "Torou-Nagashi", photo by Miki Yoshihito |
The lower one is "Torou-Nagashi", a lantern ship to seeing off the spirits back to their places after "Obon" period.
"Obon" is a traditional and religious event, in addition to this, 15th of August has another aspect: one of the most important memorial day for Japanese and other countries, such as the anniversary of the end of the Pacific War (World War ll), even though it is not a national holiday.
Not only 15th of August, 6th is an Atomic Bomb Anniversary of Hiroshima, and 9th is that of Nagasaki.
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| Atomic Bomb Dome, Hiroshima https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/... /media/File:Genbaku_Dome04-r.JPG |
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| Atomic cloud over Nagasaki, 15 minutes later https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/... /media/File:Atomic_cloud_over_Nagasaki_from_Koyagi-jima.jpeg |
My question is why Japan did not quit the war before Atomic bomb attacks.
Before August, Japan had already got catastrophic damages at urban areas such as Tokyo, Nagoya, Osaka and many cities, moreover, met the US troops at Okinawa and resulted in the crushing defeat.
However, the termination of war seemed untouchable and it was difficult to speak up the termination for governors by sensing the mood in the Japanese government at that time.
We need to figure out what types of group dynamics let the military and government not decide to finish the war.
If we understand this dynamics of the hesitation to speak up whatever opinions against the mood are, I hope we will prevent Japan from repeating the bad decisions on the war; in other words, we may figure out other solutions besides the war. Moreover, we can provide with the universal solutions for the peace over the world.
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