Wednesday marked the 70th anniversary of the U.S. atomic bombing of the Japanese city Hiroshima. While Japan commemorated the victims, the government should promise its nationals not to arm itself again to avoid recurrence of such tragedies.[Special coverage]
On Aug. 5, 1945, a U.S. B-29 bomber dropped an atomic bomb nicknamed "Little Boy" on Hiroshima. Three days later, the Japanese port city of Nagasaki was leveled off by a second nuclear bomb.
The two attacks devoured hundreds of thousands of lives and left survivors struggling with unbearable pains for the rest of their life due to radiation exposure.
They also forced Japan to surrender unconditionally to the Allied Forces on Aug. 15, 1945, bringing an end to the Second World War (WWII).
The anniversary is a sad but firm reminder that war tortures everyone and hard-won peace should be treasured by all.
Japan, a major aggressor in WWII, not only inflicted horrendous losses of lives and massive destruction on its Asian neighbors, but also dragged innocent Japanese people into the abyss of darkness.
However, it appears that the right-wing Japanese, who drove the country onto the dangerous path of militarism, have never learned their due lesson and still don't truly cherish peace although 70 years have passed.
Japan's denial of its defeat and a further whitewashing of its wartime atrocities have not only exasperated its victimized Asian neighbors but also other countries in the world.
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, leader of the ultra-right government, honors WWII war criminals by visiting the Yasukuni Shrine every year and is bent on revising Japan's pacifist constitution.
Despite opposition from the majority of the Japanese population, the country's ruling coalition has lately been forcing through a series of controversial security bills, which put its neighbors on high alert against a possible resurrection of Japan's militarism.
The controversial security bills would mean the historically bloodied "samurai sword of Japan" could once again be wielded by its troops in every corner of the world.
In the very year marking the 70th anniversary of the end of WWII, Abe's deeds are nothing but attempts to overturn Japan's seven-decade pacifism, which in turn have dealt a hard blow to Japan's war victims.
The Japanese government should realize that Japan has avoided war for 70 years thanks to the noble pacifism of the Japanese Constitution, and Japan must continue as a nation of peace in both word and deed.
On a day of suffering, the Japanese government should know that the best way to commemorate those who perished in the bombings is to sincerely reflect upon its war past and look to the future with a solid promise to its people that the country will never be switched back into the war mode.
