Apology

To all … Perhaps the light was so bright that it was blinding … I am referring to the clear news on August 6th and August 9th, 1945, that a president of the United States ordered the explosion of the atomic bomb which began the nuclear age.

This country of ours knew these facts but turned a blind eye that could not see—like when a fright is so intense one cannot scream. How else to explain the silence upon digesting the news about Hiroshima and Nagasaki and not falling flat with remorse screaming out an agonizing apology …

I am Jewish and I know a lot and feel a lot regarding the Holocaust in Europe where six million Jews were murdered. But the Holocaust in Japan that took place in 1945—at that same era—has been almost ignored.

The time to apologize and meditate on this is now, in 2020, the 75th year commemoration of these two tragedies. If not now, when?

—Helène Aylon, November 22, 2019