I landed at
Nagasaki in September 1945 with the 6th Regiment of Marines.
Most of
us shared, from experience, that "the only good Jap was a dead
Jap".
We went
ashore in full combat readiness to find ourselves standing in
a dark silent scene of desolate destruction, for which there
is no human description. But the smell of burned human flesh
was still in the air, and everywhere about. As a part of
Regimental Communications, I moved freely about in that first
month and saw and heard all of what had happened and was still
happening. Those memories are with me still. The terrible
scenes of continuing anguish that I witnessed became a part of
what I was and still am.
On “one particular
day” at “one particular moment in time”, I found myself
standing directly in the center of this unspeakable, indeed
unthinkable, devastation that had to have been caused by
someone or something. At “that one time” I was filled with
complete rage, a wrenching, seething, frustrating, insatiable
need for revenge. But against what or whom? It had no point of
location, no focus of causation - in effect, no one to blame,
no one to hold responsible. It became a passion of intense
revulsion for myself, for this world and for any and all
members of the human species - a contained certainty from deep
within me that all of us, everyone on this earth, all were
totally guilty together. And then at "that one moment in
time", the light of an inner peace enveloped me. It became "a
space in time" where a new resolution appeared, and with it,
the message, "Look at this as a new beginning."
Thus began a new continuum of time
in which we have all begun to share. It emerged from the ashes
of an atomic fire that marked an ending to an era now long
since past. I have many happy memories of my 8 months of
occupancy in Japan. It certainly includes my recognition and
respect for the fighting spirit of an indomitable adversary
with whom we had at last found an absolute necessity to truly
live together in peace. But even more, a discovery of how much
we have in common as simply, inhabitants of this earth – the
communication of friendship of people with people, sharing
together the resolution of common problems, through the
recognition of common goals. This, most certainly, was the
beginning of what has grown through the years to become the
profound friendship and trust that our nations now share with
each other.
And finally, as hackneyed as it
appears in the voicing. I began to find with my Japanese
friends, as former enemies, a self-evident truth, not in
doctrinal, religious or political systems, but in an inner
self-evidence that indeed all men
are created equal. A true inner self-awareness that each of us
is totally endowed with an unalienable right to share the will
of an eternally creative Universal Mind -- a sharing expressed
in acts of forgiveness and love. We are the amazing uniqueness
of our total similitude. We are singularly, and in our
self-inclusions, the lives, the liberties and the pursuits of
happiness that are the aspirations of all the peoples of this
world
From Nagasaki we moved to Sasebo
and then on to Fukuoka. And sure enough, right there in that
most beautiful city, at cherry blossom time,
I fell in love.
Doumo arigatou gozaimasu
I returned home in June of ’46
where I began, as did
many young/old veterans, my adult life.
The
Master Teacher
is a Teacher of God through illumination of
mind and body that is the fulfillment of the mission of A Course In
Miracles. He constitutes a continuing union with the mind of
Jesus of Nazareth through the Holy Spirit. As a Teacher of God,
he demonstrates the passion of rebirth that is the goal of all of us
in the mind training of the Course.
