Wednesday, June 17, 2020

James Luke Stilwell

Field Trip to Hell

As a child of Hiroshima Prefecture, my wife was shipped out
to the Peace Park every year along with her class
where they went through the Museum there

In principle it’s a very good thing to do--
educate the children from an early age
remind them what happened
instill a message of “Never Again”

But as I said, they start going at a very early age
and if you’ve ever been to the museum
you might wonder, what are they thinking?
It’s a non-stop tour of the horrors that began from that day
with plenty of gruesome photos and exhibits

My wife couldn’t take it
She kept her eyes down the whole time
and every year after, she found some kind of excuse
to miss that trip

I don’t know how I would’ve reacted to the museum at 6 or 7
I remember seeing some animation1 about the immediate
aftermath with people’s hands falling off and their eyeballs melting
That was pretty horrifying, but I must’ve been ten or something by then
Clearly not six, and that was just a fraction of what’s in store
for you at the museum

Everybody should go the museum at the Peace Park
but certainly only when they’re ready
As an extra to that, I am reminded of what Kurosawa’s older
brother said to him on the banks of the Sumida River after the
Great Kanto Earthquake and all the bodies piling up in it

He said something like don’t look away
because if you do it will haunt you all your life
Dare to look at it and you won’t be afraid
While that kind of became the motto for Kurosawa’s art,
I think about my wife, haunted by all she didn’t see
in the museum that day

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