This post on Reddit, although old, brought back memories for me. When I lived in Columbus Ohio, I saw this plane at the Wright-Patterson Airforce Base Museum in Dayton Ohio. I have never forgotten how small Bockscar was in relation to the destruction it caused. Bockscar is a B-29 Superfortress and dropped the Fat Man bomb in Nagasaki on 9 August 1945.
On the other side of the plane is a replica of the bomb.
The other plane, Enola Gay, is also a B-29 Superfortress and dropped the Little Boy atomic bomb on Hiroshima three days earlier, the first aircraft to drop an atomic bomb in warfare. Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark’s song, Enola Gay is about the decision to use the bomb.
For me, if someone says 1937, I automatically think pre-WWII. If they say 1946 I place it as post-WWII. I am not sure anyone born after 2000 does that. Similarly, on 9/11 last year, a shop celebrated by having drinks named Tower A and Tower B. After a huge backlash ensued, the proprietor blamed a staff member, saying they were not alive when 9/11 happened so had no idea of the huge feelings about it.
All of this becomes so resonant today. I keep thinking of the observation by Spanish philosopher George Santayana Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it
The 9/11 ad is horrifying… It’s nice that the restaurant apologized but what’s disheartening are the laughing emojis in the comment section… I have to say that I shouldn’t be the one to throw the first stone because I was talking to a Japanese friend a long time ago about me going to see the Oppenheimer movie. She told me that she doubted the movie would be released in Japan and for a while, I wasn’t sure why and if it had something to do with rights… I did feel very guilty when I realized and apologized profusely…
I guess we all put our foot in it at some point. But in the US you would think that people learn about 9/11 in history lessons. It is part of their own history, after all.
It was such a traumatizing experience and I still remember where I was and what I was doing. Unfortunately, people don’t learn from history as we can see pretty much everywhere…
Not related to history, but I once said to someone ‘ooh look at that man’, and she said ‘that’s my mother’. It was humiliating, but I learned something very important that day. I have never made a comment like that ever again.