My own feelings toward the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II ¡ª and the anniversaries of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in particular ¡ª are complicated.
I grew up in Japan. My grandmother was Japanese and my grandfather was American. In fact, he was in the United States Air Force at the time of the war. I¡¯ve had to grapple with guilt, rage and victimization ¡ª all before the age of 18.
My friends didn¡¯t help much (but I don¡¯t hold that against them). When I claimed my Japanese side here, my friends would quickly point out I was American. When I was in the States, my friends there would point out my Japanese heritage. In either case, I was always on the other side.
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