let the past flow away like the river

so says a japanese proverb often used in response to questions about world war II. it is not lost on me that i am in tokyo on december 7th. war is a horrible, complicated thing and, proverbs aside, we need to remember what happened on this day in 1941 (and before) as well as our eventual, some would say disproportionate response in august of 1945. there are fewer and fewer left to remind us.

UPDATE 12/8/08 – in a move that's being called everything from clever to brilliant to stunning, president-elect barack obama appoints gen. eric k. shinseki, a japanese-american, to head the veterans affairs depeartment, and he does it on december 7th.