70% Japanese Couldn't Answer Bomb Days in Hiroshima and Nagasaki

Ask any American what Fourth of July means; no need of remembering, you just know it - subconsciously.

Now, the Japan Broadcasting Corporation, NHK, bared a shocking set of data on August 3 based on an RDD nationwide pubic poll targeting men and women over age 20 on "A-Bomb Days in Hiroshima and Nagasaki". The findings show 70% of 1000 asked could not pinpoint the days the bombs were dropped in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. In other words, as few as 30% correctly remembered August 6 as the day Hiroshima was A-bombed; still fewer 26% said they knew August 9 to be the day another A-bomb was dropped on Nagasaki.
Most surprising is that only 69% of the citizens of Hiroshima themselves remembered August 6, the day the city was A-bombed and merely 59% of them in Nagasaki correctly recalled August 9, the day their city was A-bombed.

A youngster associates the A-bomb day in Hiroshima with hot summer's day in the baseball ground at the height of high school tournament: "Oh yes, right in the middle of a game at twelve noon all of us in the stands are called to meditate. That's how I recall the day Hiroshima was A-bombed, not otherwise", she says.

In fact, the NHK survey is not the only source of "shocking data". A popular TV program "Report 2001", an affiliate of Fuji TV, conducted a similar poll, this time asking youngsters whether they remember the day the war ended, the days A-bombs were dropped in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and Japan's allies during World War II.

In a nutshell, the absence of mind on the part of young Japanese is painfully obvious: merely 59% answered they knew the day the war ended, only 49% knew the days Hiroshima and Nagasaki were A-bombed and, mark you, as few as 25% knew Japan's allies during World War II. A naïve-looking girl hesitantly admitted she thought the US was Japan's ally!

How has all this come about is an open question, and yet it seems obvious that Japanese youngsters are ignorant of Japan's modern and current history due perhaps to insufficient classwork. A popular blogger suggests a cool arithmetic never to forget the three key dates, namely the day the war ended and the days Hiroshima and Nagasaki were A-bombed. He says: Take "6" from August 6, the day Hiroshima was A-bombed, and add to "9" from August 9, the day Nagasaki was A-bombed, and you get "15" for the day war ended in August 1945.