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Alan speaks in a very symbolic and esoteric manner in some parts of his books. Although they can be read anthroposophically, passages speaking of Atlantis, archangels, gods, etc. do not need to be taken literarily to be meaningful. The more you read, the more you will realize he uses many different religions to express ideas in a symbolic manner and not in a religious manner. His writings are not religious. In some places his writings are meant to refer to religious events in a historical way. In some places he is using religious figures (from Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, Paganism, Ancient Roman and Greek Religions, etc.) in a symbolic manner. However, at no point is he promoting a specific religion or speaking from a religious point of view.
I have kept the writing as close to one-hundred percent original so you will also find that he speaks of Australia often and some spelling or manners of speaking may be cultural. Any words I have changed are presented like this: <word>.
Also keep in mind that these books are written by a Waldorf teacher with decades of experience who also studied with a Steiner student himself, so he speaks to an audience that is dedicating their lives to the Waldorf method without exception.
Because of this, all of his views are not reflected in the Earthschooling curriculum and not all of them may be ones you want to embrace or are able to use. In all of Alan Whitehead’s writings the opinions are his own and may not align with Earthschooling or Waldorf Books. In some cases, we will be updating some of these chapters in the future with additional and/or updated information.
Ultimately, however, as I read through these passages I find I can distill wisdom from even those paragraphs that do not resonate with me.
We invite you to read with an open mind and heart and with eagerness to learn and discuss…
AUGUST 6
International Peace Day
German physicist and Nobel · Prize winner, Walter Nernst, eighteen years prior to the destruction of Hiroshima in 1945, observed, in relation to the new nuclear science, that:
“We may say that we are living on an island of gun cotton. But thank God, we have not yet found the match that will ignite it. ” Following the announcement of every single nuclear bomb test conducted anywhere in the world since 1945, a strong letter of rebuke has been sent to the respective national government by the mayor of Hiroshima. A copy of each letter is then added to the hundreds already immortalized on the Wall of Outrage in the city’s Atomic Bomb Museum. This is just a few hundred meters from the hypocenter of the blast where the euphemistically named Little Boy devastated the city on August 6, 1945.
I feel curiously braided into these events. Not -0nly have I worked regularly in Hiroshima over the years, but my grandson’s birthday is on that very date; also recognized world-wide as International Peace Day. A further irony is that he was, even before he was born, named Mars, Roman god of war.
The nuclear arms landscape has changed over the last few decades, with all the new players being small and mostly unstable countries, such as Pakistan, India, North Korea, Israel {though still not admitted) and probably Iran. Perhaps the most volatile of these newcomers with the potential to unleash the dogs of nuclear destruction are India and Pakistan.
When the Indian government conducted its infamous nuclear tests in 1998, the country was awash with jingoistic euphoria, with the day of the test being declared one of celebration. -But the happy throng seemed bewildered by the global condemnation that exploded as the news hit the wires. Japan, the most outraged nation · of all, immediately suspended $30 million of vital grants, the US imposed economic sanctions, and Australia cut defense ties and withdrew all non-humanitarian aid. Undeterred by these clear signals of disapproval, Pakistan shortly after conducted its own A-bomb tests, again accompanied to wild cheering in the streets. So for the last few years the sub-continent has remained “an island of gun cotton”, indeed.
The logical – and ironic – outcome of a country joining the nuclear race is that it is much more likely itself to become a target of nuclear attack. Even though it is many decades since the Hiroshima tragedy, for both locals and visitors the question of whether America’s use of the nuclear option was morally justified is eclipsed by the chill in the blood as one stands in silence before the Peace Memorial in Hiroshima. This once-beautiful building was, prior to the attack, a large public edifice with a magnificent elliptical dome. After the near destruction of the city this fine building’s charred concrete and twisted girders were left just as they were. In fact, it was the only building left standing near the center of the blast. Perhaps the world’s powerbrokers who support a policy of nuclear armament should peer into its gloomy interior. Here they would experience the stark reality of hundreds of men and women instantly turned to ash and melting flesh – in that very foyer, on those very stairs.
Despite a litany of humiliation visited upon the Japanese people by the war, being nuclear targets is the singular event that has left the most enduring scar, both psychological and physiological. This takes the form of smoldering anger and a nameless heartache. Perhaps this perennial pain is exacerbated by the duplicity of the US attack plan. Right through the previous night, August 5, they sent dummy airborne sorties over the city. These were greeted by the usual sirens and searchlights. As a consequence of nothing happening, the citizens became complacent, not deigning in the end to even get out of bed, let alone scuttle down to the air raid shelters.
So when the sirens sounded the approach of the Enola Gay and its Little Boy cargo at 8:15am the next day, the busy peak-hour crowds barely looked up into the hot, pale blue sky This sinister timing was to ensure that the maximum human flesh was on the streets; the obvious motive being a nefarious mix of vengeance and scientific curiosity. This is the main reason that the larger Nagasaki bomb, Fat Boy, dropped several days later, created considerably fewer casualties – the wary citizens weren’t going to be caught in the open a second time!
There is an air of serenity in the Peace Park in Hiroshima, that adjacent to the bomb site. As well as the heart-rending Tomb of the Victims with its Eternal Flame, there are more transitory memorials. These are in the form of chains of paper cranes (birds, not machines!) made by school children – thousands of them, from tiny jewel-like creations to giant peace birds a meter or so wide.
But there is another memorial, a not so transitory one. Half a kilometer to the east, in a Shinto sanctuary, is the only living thing that is known to have survived in close proximity to the inferno It is a gnarled old Australian river red gum. On the blast side is an ugly, charred scar, but on the other it flourishes with re-growth. This tree is a testament not only to the endurance enshrined in its southern hemisphere fire continent provenance, but to redemption. Even after the unprecedented assault of an atomic bomb attack, life not only survives, but burgeons.
The Peace Memorial in Hiroshima is a sepulcher – a cenotaph, even – empty but for the ghosts of the slain who still seem to haunt its crumbling walls. In this context, the long-suffering river red gum is indeed the Tree of Life. Perhaps its grey-green sickle leaves shiver when its tired old roots detect the sub-earth shock waves from around the world whenever a country defies the logic of human survival by conducting yet another atom bomb test.
Both the tree and many of Hiroshima’s survivors know the horror of nuclear conflagration, they were there. So, they know by bitter experience, as do no other peoples on earth, that no fatuous policy of nuclear deterrent is worth that kind of risk.
Peace day at Hiroshima is not only a solemn series of ceremonies of sadness, but one of the celebrations of survival as well. Thousands of people, both local and visitors, attend the city parks and riverside. Here musicians play as the evening deepens, with one single flute player being, for your author, especially poignant. As well, myriads of floating lantern boats, one for every pers9n killed by the blast, are cast off from pontoons to drift off into the darkness bearing the well wishes of the throng.
As the last of the light boats disappears into the gloom on its way to the sea, we enjoy a final raspberry ice cone from one of the many brightly-lit stalls. We then wend our way home to reflect on humanity’s barbarism in releasing such a catastrophe, and its wisdom for its commitment to never repeat the crime. Hiroshima, for so many reasons, is definitely the place to be on August 6 each year.
Peace Day, Hiroshima, Japan, 2000. Above, lanterns sail off to sea, one for every victim of the atomic bomb. Below, thousands of memorial paper cranes add to this Celebration of Survival.
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