Principal Backs School Nuclear Symbol: ‘We Didn’t Start’ WWII

A meeting between Japanese anti-nuclear activists and officials of a high school whose symbol is a nuclear mushroom broke up when the principal angrily declared that the United States wasn’t to blame for World War II, then left.

Tuesday’s meeting was called to discuss Japanese objections to the Richland High School symbol, which celebrates the area’s role in the production of U.S. nuclear arms, including plutonium in the bomb that destroyed Nagasaki in World War II.

“We are not going to change our symbol because we believe it has something to do with the heritage of our community,” Principal John Nash told a delegation of 35 Japanese who visited this town adjacent to the giant Hanford nuclear reservation.

“I heard some things here that made me angry,” Nash said. “We can go back to history and recall a lot of things about the war and I could say some things here that would be very disruptive to you people, but I’m not about to do this,” Nash said.

“But I’m going to say one thing and you should remember this. We did not start that war and I think that should end it.”

Nash then walked out of the classroom, to the loud applause of some residents in the south-central Washington city, leaving the visitors to talk with faculty, students and reporters.

The meeting had begun quietly, with Nash escorting the visitors into a classroom and welcoming them.

But things turned sour when Sakae Ito, a 77-year-old survivor of Hiroshima, made a lengthy speech about military symbolism and asked Nash to change the school symbol to something more peaceful “like cranes or rainbows.”

Earlier this year, an attempt by some teachers and residents to eliminate the mushroom cloud symbol of the Richland High School Bombers was overwhelmingly defeated in a student election, when students voted instead to officially adopt the cloud as their symbol.