The Pearl Harbor Attacks and The 9/11 Terrorist Attacks on a Sheet
In an appendix portion of a Sunday version of the Mainichi Suimbun newspaper, I found interesting comments by two Japanese; each traveled to America recently and a few years ago, respectively.
One to the Pearl Harbor for sight seeing or coverage for his series of essay. Another to New York for supervising his show in Broadway in 2001.
At the Pearl harbor memorial site, the author met a Japanese professional cameraman who told that Americans had changed since September 11, 2001. Many Americans have come to visit the memorial site. The author dropped in a bookshop where a video featuring WWII veterans was played. He saw an old man telling that the memorial site was the place to communicate not in a formal manner but as a human being to a human being.
Later, when the author tried to enter a certain hall, he was surprised at finding the very person in the video now being in charge of guiding him into the inside. The old veteran has been practicing his philosophy, while undoubtedly he can discern a Japanese from other races.
In another comment, a famous, Japanese stage director wrote that he got a call, in a hotel room, from an American manager in the morning of the first day of his show in New York. It was a week after the terror attacks on September 11, 2001. The American manager wanted to get consent from the stage director on marginally changing a sequence of the show. It is for players to sing the God Bless America on the stage.
The Japanese stage director didn’t like such an idea that the concept of God is bound by any interests of a certain country, in this case the United States of America. God is universal, but the U.S. is not. However, the manager’s idea was adopted and players sang the God Bless America.
On a sheet of a Japanese newspaper, two topics were offered this way, side by side. The Pearl Harbor attacks and the 9/11 terrorist attacks seem to be yet remembered all through the 21st century in some way of comparison. No Japanese find any similarity, between the two attack incidents, that is against Japan's honor. And, I hope that it prevails among Americans, too.
“AND THIS WAS HOW WE ALL GOT SAFELY ASHORE.”