World War II officially ended 63 years ago with the surrender of Japan, but the legacy of the war isn’t completely over. On Sunday, an unexploded bomb dropped from a B-29 was discovered in Tokyo, forcing the evacuation of 16,000 residents while the Self Defense Forces were called in to defuse it, which they did successfully. Although this was a unique reminder of the reality of the war for modern Japan, I’ve always wondered why tangible signs that there really was a war here are so rare today. There are a few, of course — a really straight road in a nearby city that locals will tell you used to be the runway for the Nakajima Air Base, a playground with an old Zero fighter converted for kids to play on, and a deactivated American bomb on display in a library. Growing up in the Washington D.C. area, though, I remember visiting Arlington National Cemetery and the Iwo Jima Memorial, and I feel as if I was more aware of the war than Japanese kids growing up here, where it actually happened. There’s nothing like Arlington here in Japan, no equivalent to Veteran’s Day or Memorial Day — I guess there are psychological factors at work in the minds of the Japanese that are hard for an American to fathom.
