How Long to Hate

My travels have taken me to Japan. My daughter is with me on this trip and we are both enjoying the country very much. The Japanese are extremely polite and clean and it is easy for one to believe that this is a culture worth emulating; that the peace and serenity that surrounds here is a good direction given the troubles that plague the world…still I know that all is not what it seems.

I mentioned to my Mother how much we were enjoying Japan and she politely stated that she was glad that we were enjoying our trip but that she would rather not hear or think of the Japanese. My father fought in the South Pacific during WWII and in fact had his ship sunk by a Kamikaze Pilot. I am aware of the atrocities that were committed by the Japanese military during the 1930’s and 40’s. Indeed, some of those who I work with are Chinese and there was much discussion during our meetings of the “Rape of Nanking” and of the unwillingness of the Japanese to acknowledge their crimes or apologize to the victims. Even the Germans have done this and surely the evil of the Japanese was just as bad as what I recently witnessed at Auschwitz. So I ask myself a question…How long do we hate? How long before we forgive and move on?

Surely those responsible for these crimes must be removed from society, but do their sins necessarily transfer to their children? To their grandchildren?

My country was torn apart by a brutal Civil War 145 years ago. A generation of young men was lost and the hatreds that were generated were as deep and dangerous as any that has been born in this world. To our great benefit, the leaders of both sides found a way to move on from the killing and to give the country a path to reconciliation. The good will of Abraham Lincoln, Robert E. Lee, and Ulysses Grant likely saved my country from the ongoing violence and hatred that plague so much of the world today; that continue without end in Palestine and Israel.

Humans have been evil to one another for all of history, but I fear that we honor their evil when we continue to hate when those who are worthy of hating are long dead and beyond our grasp. I understand the anger at injustice, but there must be a time when we move on. Those who claim that they need apologies for acts of injustice committed 100 or more years ago distress me. I think that these people do their ancestors no honor and only extend the reach of those who perpetrated these evils so long ago. We all have real problems to address and the fact that so many carry baggage with them of slights that have been done so long ago as not to really matter frustrate me in the extreme. I am tempted to use that particularly American retort, “Get a Life!”.

Best! Norm.