Time for Remembering

August is the sad month for Japanese people having 3 memorial days; atomic bombing in Hiroshima on 4th then Nagasaki on 9th and anniversary of end of the Pacific War on 15th.
If the Japan’s decision to surrender had been made a little sooner, these tragedies would not have happened. Now the Russian invasion of Ukraine unlikely to end. It’s so hard to think about the timing when to stop the war. Talking about a war, I’d like to introduce an interesting history about the kanji character for it.

The Kanji/Chinese character for war or combat is “bu”(武) . Samurai warrier is 武士 (bushi) and martial arts such a judo, sumo, is 武道(budo).
The original meaning of “bu”(武) was a depiction of worrier boldly marching (足) into battle with halberd(戈) in hand.  (see the futured image written by Tsukioka Yoshitoshi)
But in Edo era, later after finished Sengoku war period in16th century, its interpretation was changed as meaning “to stop (止) fighting(戈) “. It’s perfectly opposite meaning that if a person/country continue to improve its fighting skills, it can stop fighting. As the same theory of balancing nuclear weapons, this is the oneside view that the peaceful life is protected how powerful military force you’ve horned. 

Anyway, I prayed and lit incense to mourn the victims quietly.