6th of August, 2009

On the night of 6th of August, 2009, I switched on the cable TV in the room of Kuching Riverside Majestic Hotel. I flicked from one channel to another, and finally settled on the Japanese channel. It has been a long time since I watched Japanese animes, dramas, etc. So, when I saw a Japanese documentary, featuring little girls dressed up in cute Japanese uniforms in the 1940s, with ribbons in their hair, I decided to watch it for a few minutes more than I had intended to. I had been in a melancholic mood on that day as well. Having been high on ecstasy from all the laughter early in the afternoon and evening, my nerves had calmed down tremendously. As if the laughing gas had just dissipitated across the room into thin air, and well, I was once again back to my sobre, solemn normal self.

I changed from one channel to another after that but none of them seemed as interesting as the Japanese documentary. It was a black and white film, about girls writing their daily journals as part of their school assignments, re-enacted. At first I thought the film was a happy film, since it featured cute Japanese children in their uniforms.

In one of the scenes, it talks about the feelings of a young girl who attends biology class for the first time. The teacher brings them out to the garden to catch earth worms. He then proceeds to ask them to dig into the damp earth, pull out the worms, put the red, wriggling worms on their palms and feel it with their cheeks! Of course! the girls felt so ticklish and the tingling sensations! The girl wrote, "I love biology class" after that short field-trip.

In another scene, it depicts the scene of little girls who are not older than 12 or 13 years old, learning to make their first Americanized/Western coats and skirts from scratch. They take measurements of their own waists, arms, hips and trace the shape of the coat that they want on the newspapers. They then cut the pieces of cloth according to the traced design on the newspaper. In the evenings, they sit in front of the verandah of their houses and start sewing the pieces of cloth together, stitch by stitch, with their little sisters beside them, watching silently. Once it's done, they hold it up with such pride and run into the room with their little sisters trailing behind. They put on the new coats and skirts, and stare at themselves in the mirror. Thinking what a good job they've done!

I was wondering what a sentimental movie this is when the narrator narrates, "It was a sunny day. Everything looked as if it would be a perfect day, when a bomb changed everything. In one second, the skies turned grey, black, cloudy and smoky. Fire billowed from the wooden houses. In just a matter of seconds, the wet, nicely stacked uniforms which the little girls had laid to dry on the stones turned to ashes. None were unscathed. Only a few were partially burnt, and maintained their bright blue colours."

It then dawned upon me that this documentary is about the atomic bombing of Hiroshima. Usually, the Japanese channel seldom air this kind of sad documentaries. I wondered why they chose to air it on that particular day. My queries were finally answered on the 9th of August, 2009 when an article in the New Straits Times explained about the atomic bombing in Hiroshima on the 6th of August, 2009. It was definitely a wake up call to the Japanese on that day. A day when several lives were lost and human race was reminded again of its naked vulnerability to extreme uncontrollable human violence. Harming innocent civilians to warn the guilty party.

At the end of the documentary, it shows the museum where all items owned by the civilians after the bombing are displayed. Diaries of the little girls were put on display, some with burnt pages and faded black ink; Holes in the dresses of the little girls, a void replacing certain parts of the material, which by then had already turned into ashes.

The scene of little girls running around unfolds. A bomb drops down and the little girls are not around anymore. One girl hides in the house. Another runs to the nearest cave and hides in there until the sounds of planes arriving quieten.

War ruins lives. It is a widely known fact. For the little girls, their innocence and beliefs were robbed away from them in just a minute. Nothing will ever be the same again. That day, a 12 year old girl, one of the survivors of the bombing, was forced to grow up and assume the responsibilities of her parents in taking care of her younger sibblings.

"It is hard to forget, this bombing, the effect that it had on all of us." one of the little girls in the movie, who by now was about 60-70 years old, with silver streaks of hair reflects. "The war robbed our happiness, our sense of security. It was hard to fall in love again after that. War, it sort of have that effect on you, you know. The gory scene will return to us, night after night, in our dreams, even when we're wide awake. Over time, gradually, however, we learn to forgive. We begin to learn how to gradually rekindle our love for one another all over again."

A haunting music piece on a windpipe instrument is played, and a girl waves happily to a guy across the river, signifying hope for the Japanese nation. Time heals. In every corner of the world. Hope brings us peace, joy and patience, the very elements that make this world a much better place to live in. Hope. It never dies. It just lingers in the hearts of the living, easing our pain, comforting our souls. Just like the candle in the wind, shining brightly without wavering.