Every May citizens in Hiroshima go through a ritual. A powerful, symbolic ritual that reveals one perspective of the Japanese toward Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
Wednesday, May 16th was the day last year. At the cenotaph in the Hiroshima Peace Park volunteers open a tomb beneath the cenotaph.Â
It houses 114 books which list the victims of Hiroshima of Nagasaki. Each May, the books are removed and inspected. Stored in an underground tomb, in a tropical/swamp environment where mold and fungus are constant enemies, the books are inspected page by page for signs of damage. The books list 308,725 names.
The Masters of Marketing never miss a marketing opportunity. The Japanese know, today, exactly the number of victims of the bombings. A criteria was established decades ago: exposure based on distance from the epicenter within a specific time frame after each bombing.
The books could have been filled very long ago, but that would have squandered a wonderful annual marketing opportunity of victimhood. The annual ritual, which memorializes the victims who died in the previous 12 months totally blurs the line between victims and casualties. This is exactly what the Japanese want. The Japanese leverage the bombings with the international community to divert attention from their own massive atrocities during World War II. Adding names to the books each year is one part of the campaign.