Sakura and the bomb

Sakura and the bomb
We , along with half the world , including multitudes from India, were in Japan for the cherry blossom festival, or Sakura as they call it.
In spring, these trees sprout the pink flowers where the leaves were, after the leaves have fallen, making the trees look festooned in pink. These, over 2 weeks, fade and turn white, and then fall off, and new leaves sprout in their place.
As these trees are ubiquitous in Japan, lining most streets and crowding public parks as well as wild woodlands, and gracing most public buildings and private cottages, these swathes of pink and white are no doubt a beautiful spectacle.
But cherry blossoms are available in many other countries, including India. Last year we saw plenty in Bhutan.
However, here in Japan, they’re celebrated with religious fervour.
Everywhere people are out watching them, walking along them and picnicking under them.
The biggest celebration is when the blossoms fall, and people party under them.
Families do it in their backwards, where there’s usually a bench under the trees.
Groups do it in public parks. Corporates send out their interns to capture spaces under trees and stay there through fair and foul weather, braving rains and icy winds, and alert their bosses as the blossoms start falling, and everyone rushes there and there’s wine music and dancing.
People visit the parks at night too, and the trees are lit up.. this being called the night Sakura.
But why this special attachment to this ordinary phenomenon of nature?
The story goes back to one of mankind’s most heinous crimes, the dropping of the nuclear bombs on innocent civilians by the USA.
The epicentre of the bomb is preserved in Hiroshima as a peace memorial. They do not remonstrate or accuse, but try to remind the world of the horror so that it’s never repeated again.
One of the most poignant pictures in the museum was a picture of a primary school class photo, and the statement that they were all victims of the bomb, and some scorched children’s clothing is displayed. The bomb had been timed when maximum people are outdoor, and children are going to school and parents going to work.
Generations later people suffered from cancer, genetic diseases and birth defects as a result of the radiation.
Much the same as the American use of agent orange did to Vietnam, destroying the land and the people for generations.
The Vietnamese too does not let the world forget the American atrocities, like the Jews never let the world forget the holocaust.
We however have brushed under the carpet two bigger human tragedies, genocidal atrocities, with far greater loss of lives and uprooting of people, the 1947 partition and the 1971 massacre of 30 million people in Bangladesh.
But let us return to Japan.
The much celebrated film, Oppenheimer, a tasteless celebration of this genocide, and the American angst over it, was initially not released in Japan in order not to open wounds, but after sweeping the Oscars it was, and I read in the papers how much people were offended on the scenes of American celebration of the genocide.
But what does this have to do with Sakura?
When it was assumed that Hiroshima is destroyed for ever and nothing will ever grow there, in spring, they noticed that a few Sakura trees had survived, and a few cherry blossoms had started to bloom.
They thus became a symbol of hope, and the inspiration for the Japanese resurrection.
The results are for all to see.
That is why Sakura is the national festival and it’s celebration is such an important factor of Japanese life.
Let me close with a hilarious news item that typifies Japanese character.
A hapless intern had laid a white sheet under a Sakura tree and was guarding it diligently for his seniors, when a group of tourists, unaware of the culture, and thinking this was for them, settled down there to party. Unable to communicate and too polite to object , while humiliated by his inability to perform his dut, the poor intern burst into tears.
Soumya