Leaders show forgiveness through mutual respect

After reading the excellent editorial “Remembering Pearl Harbor, I started thinking of those days and the heavy velveteen curtains in my grandmother’s house in Pasadena Calif.. No lights were allowed to be seen, hence the blackout curtains. No streetlights or car lights at night. Those were scary times on the West Coast because of reports of a submarine being sighted near Long Beach.

I am glad we are now friends with Japan, but I have never heard any mentioning of just why they bombed Hawaii.

Before he left office. President Obama visited Japan. He was the first sitting American president to do that. I saw the event on TV and I will never forget it. After he made a short speech, he placed a wreath on the stone memorial that the Japanese had put in the city of Hiroshima, where we had dropped an atomic bomb during the war.

He placed the wreath with such dignity, respect and compassion, the Japanese dignitaries were visibly moved, almost to tears. He stepped back a few steps, bowed his head and prayed silently. When he walked over to join the men, the president of Japan gave him a hug. It was obvious they all loved him for his actions.

A short time later the president of Japan visited Pearl Harbor and I remember a letter to the editor from a lady who was upset and angry about it. She said, “What’s he doing there!” I wanted to write and tell her that he was repaying President Obama for being so kind to them in Hiroshima.

Each country, the U.S. and Japan, was giving a silent combination of apology and forgiveness, even though the two men involved had nothing to do with the war. The U.S. for dropping the bombs and Japan, for killing our people at Pearl Harbor.

It was a beautiful thing to see both countries forgiving the atrocity that each had done to the other.

“To err is human. To forgive, divine.”

ELEANOR FOSTER Lowell