I’ve always wondered why I don’t like history. I admit that it is my waterloo; I’m bad at remembering important dates, places and people. But aside from that, I remain clueless to what makes me turn 180 degrees whenever I am confronted with history.
2010. A new beginning. A new set of resolutions (of which some I will surely fail to comply with). A new plan of adventures, of dreams, of enthusiasm for the future. 2009 is now a history and this year is another chance for me to make a worth-remembering story. Ultimately, it is up to me how to seal my own history.
August 6, 1945 at 8:15am, Hiroshima’s history was sealed. US atomic bomb hit the center of then thriving Japan’s educational and military center. Thousands of lives lost and properties damaged. It marked the beginning of a nuclear age.
January 2, 2010 at the Peace Memorial Museum, I was looking back at this part of Hiroshima’s history. And then I realized why I didn’t like history.
It’s because of the pain and sadness of failures and losses. It’s because of the endless regret for opportunities that have passed. It’s because of the time that you will never get back again.
And at the same moment, I bid farewell to my long hatred for history. Because it provides lessons learned from old mistakes. Because it gives a new chance to make the future better.
August 6, 1945 urged the world for nuclear disarmament.
January 2, 2010 urged me to aspire for my self-contentment.
65 years have passed since the atomic bomb was dropped at Hiroshima and now it has become as lively and prosperous as before, armed with history and a call for peace.
25 years have passed since a wonderful and caring mother held her first-born child and now supported with a constructive past, a challenging future and great dreams, that child has grown to thread the years ahead with ambitions and actions.
Lessons from the life that was and from the now that is, I will be forever grateful.
