Even After 80 Years, Japan Still Struggles to Fully Come to Terms With Its Wartime Past

 On August 6, Hiroshima marked the 80th anniversary of the atomic bombing with a quiet and respectful ceremony. Bells rang, doves flew, and people gathered in Peace Memorial Park to honor the lives lost. Speeches were given, wreaths were placed, and the horrors of nuclear war were remembered.

But beneath these solemn rituals, Japan continues to avoid fully addressing the deeper question: why was the bomb dropped in the first place?

Many people in Japan still focus on the suffering caused by the atomic bomb but are less aware of the broader historical context. At the ceremony, both young students and adults expressed sadness about the tragedy, but most had little understanding of Japan’s role in World War II.

“I haven’t really thought about it,” said one young person whose grandparent survived the bombing. Others gave vague explanations, such as “there were military facilities here.” One visitor mentioned the idea that the U.S. used the bomb as an experiment, which he found disturbing.

This reflects a larger trend in Japan, where public memory often focuses on victimhood rather than taking a deeper look at the country’s role as an aggressor during the war. Museums and memorials document the destruction caused by the bombs, but Japan’s own wartime actions, especially in other Asian countries, are rarely discussed openly or taught in schools.

While the official ceremony went on, anti-war protesters gathered nearby, criticizing Japan’s rising military spending and talks of possibly sharing nuclear weapons with the U.S. They were kept away by police, while right-wing activists tried to silence them with loudspeakers.

Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba and Hiroshima’s mayor both spoke at the event, calling for peace and affirming Japan’s non-nuclear stance. However, neither mentioned Japan’s wartime aggression or why the bombing happened.

The U.S. dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945 to force Japan to surrender and end World War II. But Japan has often framed itself mainly as a victim of the bombings, without acknowledging the pain it caused to countries like China and Korea during the war.

Experts say this lack of honest reflection is a problem. Professor Kumiko Haba pointed out that Japan’s society was not built on real reckoning with its history of invasion and colonialism. History books rarely cover Japan’s invasions of its neighbors.

Another scholar, Professor Atsushi Koketsu, highlighted how even the famous Hiroshima memorial avoids assigning responsibility. Its message — “Let all the souls here rest in peace, for we shall not repeat the error” — doesn’t say who made the error.

By avoiding the full truth of its past, Japan risks building a future on an incomplete understanding. True peace, after all, requires more than just remembering tragedy — it also requires learning from it.