9th Aug 1945, a day that made a big change to
the world. Many lives are lost since the incident happened but the sacrifice
was necessary to regain freedom for the people of the world. Japan had
everything it takes during the World War II to conquer the world and made it
into a whole new empire. It was Japan that has the advantage, many countries
are underpowered not many could do much. It was the fighting spirit that made
the Japanese soldiers grew stronger and made then almost indestructible.
Not long after they have attacked Pearl Harbour. Nations feared and gathered to come out with an atomic bomb to end it once and
for all. The question is, have you ever wondered what would happen if that day,
the bomb didn’t work or landed successfully at Nagasaki or Hiroshima? What if
the Japanese soldiers didn’t give up that time? What will the world be like
today? How are the people living with their lives today? And how
did their ancestors spent their lives living in the dark past?
On the 20th July 2012, CNN reported that a journalist
happened to have found a letter in a library of the St.Terressa Church that was
hidden in one of the books in Japan that is likely to be written in
the final days of World War II.
To whoever that is reading this,
My
name is Nick Cooper, I am a priest from the United Kingdom to spread the Gospel
of God here in Japan. I have been living here with my wife for at least 7 years happily in our little town. I wrote this for the sake of who knows what
would happen to me after the war.
I
remember very clearly that surviving back in the days weren’t easy, we don’t
have enough food supplies and no clean water ever since Japanese soldiers
attacked. All I remembered was having airplanes flying all over the sky
destroying our villages. People are panicking and people and dead bodies are
increasing day by day. What was left on the sky during the day was just smoke
and dust.
Villagers
are forced to labour work even the elder ones and the children are forced to
work continuously for days without even food and water, many died after that.
Women are abused to become slave workers to the soldiers, most of them are
killed because they refused, and some rather die by committing suicide.
For
me, I was forced into being a translator for the soldiers back then. Staying alive was the best option for us at
that time, we can’t say or the next thing we end up is to a pile of dead bodies
unburied. Japanese language was not really a problem to me, I was a quick
learner.
Unfortunately,
my job was just to translate. If we would make a mistake or tell a lie. Our tongue
will be cut off and we will bleed to death for that is the price that we have
to play if we disobey them.
Days
passed. Dead bodies are just piling up like they used to be, as a Priest myself
. Watching them die and I could not do anything was the worst thing I
experienced in my entire life. All I could do was just pray that they will find
their way in heaven peacefully.
I
started to wonder, maybe dying myself would be better than watching people die.
It came to me that, life was meaningless when you have lost your country and
home and even hope to continue living.
Luckily,
our prayers to God are heard. The war
ended not long after the atomic bomb in Japan
on Aug 9th 1945 . Japanese soldiers were retreating back to
their homeland. People in the Japan are rebuilding from scrap. Everything
went back to normal in a few years time. The purpose of this letter is to tell us
not to loose hope. Who knows what would happen if I committed suicide when the
war was going to end the day after tomorrow? I hope whoever may read this will
pass my story on for the sake of your people and the world. My name is Nick
Cooper and this is my testimony.
Nick Cooper
Sometimes even the slightest things in life
could give hope to a person. Not just a friend but also even a stranger. A
message from the past could be a lesson or a teaching to the future for
generations to come. Having faith or hope is what makes our lives special. Finding the purpose of our lives rather than
loosing our direction.
-HOPE IS ALL WE NEED-
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