Thursday was the 64th anniversary of the United States’ atomic bomb attack on Hiroshima, Japan. Tomorrow is the 64th anniversary of the United States’ atomic bomb attack on Nagasaki, Japan. Sixty-four years later, these remain the only two times that nuclear weapons have been used in warfare.
To commemorate what should be a sad and pensive occasion, today is “Family Fun Day” at the National Atomic Testing Museum:
Families will have fun as they explore Japanese culture. There will be Japanese dancers, Sushi Rolling, and Origami folding. Take your picture in a kimono.
If I didn’t think it was necessary to blog about this, I would just be sitting here going “buh buh buh.” Even leaving out the whole issue of the anniversary, this kind of “family fun day” is actually the cheapest kind of reductionist cultural appropriation, taking a rich, complex, varied, and ancient culture and pulling out a few recognizable stereotypes for “family fun.” To appreciate a culture that produced everything from ukiyo-e paintings to Hello Kitty, sushi rolling and kimono photographs just don’t cut it.
Second, why do we have an Atomic Testing Museum anyway? I had a vague hope that it was private, but no. It’s a Smithsonian Institution Affiliate, and it works with the Department of Energy. And as near as I can tell, it doesn’t give a lot of attention to the human cost of the atomic bomb attacks on Japan. The “After the Bomb” “multigenerational narrative” that was held on Hiroshima Day may, in fact, treat with the experiences of Japanese victims, but you can’t tell that from the site.
The little slide show of the museum takes us through 14 galleries. None of the captions ever mention the attacks on Japan. Instead, the focus is on the Nevada test site, and other tests. There’s even a gallery devoted to the people who lived on the test site before it became a war zone. And the news article linked above mentions the people whose health was affected by the testing. But the Japanese, it appears, are only trotted out around Hiroshima and Nagasaki Days. Why would they be important to the history of atomic testing? After all, they weren’t harmed by tests.
Anyone who knows anything about Japan is likely to know just how big an actual and mythical role those two explosions play in the lives of contemporary Japanese people. Wikipedia estimates 220,000 deaths in the first year, and that was by no means everyone who died. If you’re Japanese, the odds are good that you (or your parents) know someone who died, or are just one remove away. Anger, fear, rage, resentment, confusion: all the things that people and nations feel after being attacked. These things are not “family fun.” They can, in fact, destroy (or strengthen) families.
Am I over-reacting? Well, here’s a thought experiment:
On September 11, 2065, the Islamic Museum of Air Warfare (perhaps in Abu Dhabi, or Karachi) holds a “Family Fun Day” in which you can eat a hamburger, ride on a hay wagon, and get your picture taken in a cowboy outfit. Does that make you feel all warm and fuzzy inside? Or does it seem inappropriate, trivializing, and heartless?
Wry thanks to evwhore, who also included an interesting quotation from Dave Barry on a closely related topic.