Tinian hosts Hibakusha, U.S. veterans for peace rites

Tinian wrote its own history this year by hosting a rather controversial group—the Japanese atomic survivors—together with American veterans and bringing the two groups together in one place at the same time as part of the 60th year commemoration of the 1945 atomic bombing.

Spearheaded by the Mayor’s Office and the Tinian Municipal Council, the event attracted three Hibakusha from Nagasaki and Hiroshima and two Japanese imperial army veterans.

About 30 American veterans came.

The Tinian government set two separate events at the same time: peace ceremonies for the Japanese group at King Peace Gardens in San Jose and Atomic Mission commemoration at the U.S. North Field for the U.S. veterans. North Field is a military property where the 1945 bomb pits are located.

Although they had separate events, members of either group were free to attend each other’s events.

Further, all guests were billeted at the same hotel, Tinian Dynasty Hotel and Casino. So it was almost inevitable that the two groups would meet—a fact that troubled some people in the CNMI and worried them no end as to how the two groups would react.

But to some participants, it was a chance to verbally promote peace and reconcillation.

A member of the Hibakusha, 85-year-old Keijieo Matshushima, apologized for atrocities committed by Japan during World War II in various places in the Pacific.

“I have mixed feelings. …We feel we have to apologize for giving you trouble because of the war our country started,” he said in his final remarks during a Hibakusha Experience event held at Tinian Dynasty Hotel & Casino.

Hibakusha Experience, a first-hand narration of the survivors of their experiences, was attended by local residents and guests, including a number of U.S. veterans and their family members.

Matshushima said his group came to the CNMI “to mourn the death of U.S. soldiers” who died during the war.

He was 16 years old when the bomb was dropped on Hiroshima on Aug. 6, 1945.

Matshushima revealed that early on, USS Indianapolis survivor Mike Kuryla approached him to say sorry over the atomic attack.

Kuryla survived when his ship sunk after it was torpedoed by the Japanese after delivering atomic bomb parts to Tinian in July 1945.

Kuryla reportedly said he “wished we didn’t have to do it.”

“I told him you don’t have to apologize. I understand what happened and we can’t blame ourselves for it,” said Matshushima in an interview.

In a separate event held at Northfield, Kuryla recognized that the atomic bombing forced the Japan government to surrender and resulted in the quick end of the war.

“Freedom is not free,” he told the crowd, noting that the atomic bombing had saved millions of lives.

“Now if war can do it, why not peace?” he asked.

NO PLAN TO MEET

The feeling of having to say sorry was not an issue to other veterans.

B-29 superfortress Next Objective pilot W. Locke Easton said he was very grateful to attend the commemoration event but had no intention to meet with Japanese veterans.

“I’m glad that they [Japanese veterans] are here but I’m not planning to do that [meet with them]. I don’t have any plan to do that. There’s no reason that I feel I need to do that,” he said.

Don Swindle, 4th Marine Division, said, “I still don’t have good feelings about it. …To me, it’s not just the right kind of feeling,” he said.

The U.S. Marines took over Tinian in July 1944, paving the way for the U.S. forces to carry out the atomic attacks on Japan.

Other visitors to Tinian were Martin Zach, an American prisoner of war in Japan, USS Indianapolis survivor Woody James, Dr. Harold Agnew and Leon Smith who were involved in the assembly of the bombs, and about B-29 crew involved in the actual strike, 2nd Marine veterans Donald Swindle and Donald Milleson, and two Seabees who were involved in the building of the Tinian harbor, runway, and bomb pits.

The organizers also invited Anderson Giles as speaker on Tinian’s WWII history, John Coster-Mullen, known across the U.S. as the expert in WWII weapons, and professor Haguchi from Kyoto University and an adjunct faculty at Harvard.

LIFETIME EVENT

Organizers, led by Phillip Mendiola Long of the Mayor’s Office and his cousin, James Mendiola of the Municipal Council, hailed the weeklong event, stretching up to Aug. 9, as once-in-a- lifetime event that can only happen on Tinian.

Long said the Tinian commemoration aims “to balance” the presentation of WWII history as far as Tinian is concerned.

While others feared that the presence of the Japanese might ignite bitter memories, he said the Japanese side cannot be ignored “because they’re part of history.”

He said the commemoration of the atomic missions “does not belong to the Commonwealth but to the world.”

Some members of the foreign media, including the Washington Post, covered the event.

The Tinian’s 60th commemoration of the Atomic Mission to Japan received no official representative from the Naval Forces Marianas in Guam.