Word: kawamoto
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...morning routine was this: at 6, Kawamoto would rise, put on his school uniform, and walk down the hill to catch the train for Hiroshima. Monday, Aug. 6, was very hot, even that early in the day, and Kawamoto was tired. All the children his age had been conscripted by the military to clear firebreaks in Hiroshima, areas of escape or safety in case fires spread after bombing raids. Not that there had ever been major bombing raids on Hiroshima. While Tokyo and Osaka were being fire bombed by the Americans in March, Hiroshima was relatively untouched, save...
...raid alert for the city just after 7, but the B-29 soon passed over, and the all clear was sounded. This was the weather plane that advised the Enola Gay that the target was open. Schoolchildren looked forward to air-raid alerts, which allowed them to stop working. Kawamoto said goodbye to his mother, who told him to take care of himself. He plonked a shovel on his shoulder and strode soldier-like toward the railway station...
When the train arrived at the West Hiroshima station, Kawamoto and the other first-year boys gathered outside and, commanded by the senior boys, jogged in formation about two kilometers to the school. They jogged across the Shin Koi Bridge over the Ota River spillway, across a slim space of land to another bridge, which spanned the Tenma River, across another strip of land and the Nishi Heiwa Bridge over the Honkawa, finally crossing the Heiwa Bridge over the Motoyasu River. About 100 meters from the school gate, Kawamoto and his classmates were ordered to halt and march regimentally...
...Kawamoto did not like having the military around his school, but he appreciates the military values of discipline. He connects discipline with self-knowledge. Once, when he was a very small boy, his father took him in a boat out into the bay and threw him in, to teach the boy to swim. Kawamoto struggled and tried to grab the side of the boat, but his father pushed him off with a pole. Only when the boy sank did his father pull him back. "I asked him why he did not help me sooner. I thought my father was trying...
...modern generation Kawamoto says it does not possess "the kind of heart that knows how to stare into itself and discover its own strength. Onore o shiru: to know oneself. It is essential. People today live too much by their individual desires, and so are bound to repeat the mistakes of the past. One must vow not to repeat those mistakes. Unless you know your self, you cannot make a vow that counts...