In response to the call for the renunciation of war, the author sometimes hears objections like:
“You know nothing about history.”
“You know nothing about politics.”
“What did you even learn in school?”
“What foolish ideas you have.”
“That’s just how the world works.”
The blogger sees no value in politics that causes human suffering. Mold-covered breadcrumbs must simply be burned away. If left untouched, the mold only spreads further and suffocates the world.
What deserves attention more than the history shaped by such politics is the undeniable reality that wars are taking place right now — the reality that countless human lives are being lost, the tragic condition of today’s international society, and the harsh environment surrounding today’s young generation.
A young girl standing frozen before ruins.
A malnourished infant lying weakly on the ground.
A small child crying beside the cold body of a dead mother.
The corpse of a soldier abandoned on a battlefield.
Countless war orphans.
These are not abstractions. They are reality.
What matters most is recognizing that humanity’s history has been completely contaminated by mold-covered breadcrumbs through the foolishness of war — and recognizing that we unknowingly continue consuming those mold-covered crumbs every day as though they were delicious.
An Implicit Agreement with Eight Billion People
This Earth, believed to have come into existence 4.6 billion years ago, belongs to no one. Every one of the world’s eight billion people is inherently born with the right to live freely anywhere on this planet.
This is not only an individual right; it is also an unspoken mutual agreement between oneself and every other human being.
To possess the right to live means simultaneously recognizing that all other eight billion people possess that same right, and mutually acknowledging one another’s existence itself.
This is precisely the promise of:
“Live and Let Live.”
As civilization developed, humanity introduced various concepts along with instruction manuals designed to support them — concepts such as nationality, territory, and borders, together with laws and systems specialized around those ideas.
Human beings, born upon an Earth belonging to no one, now enjoy the protection of nations through complex laws and institutions, while at the same time suffering restrictions imposed by them.
Yet the right to live itself remains a universal right so fundamental that even elementary school children can understand it. Not even national leaders have the authority to take this right away from their people.
The role of political leaders should be to firmly establish the concept of “a society without war.” They must seek ways to ensure harmony and coexistence between new breadcrumbs — the awareness, concepts, laws, and institutions of an international society that has renounced war — and the old mold-covered breadcrumbs of outdated assumptions.
The challenge is discovering how humanity can live peacefully together upon the stage called Earth.
Unfortunately, even now in the twenty-first century, humanity still has not found that answer. Since the birth of civilization, we have repeatedly failed to scatter the mold-covered breadcrumbs far enough away. We have not succeeded in obtaining fresh bread, nor have we managed to coexist peacefully even with the mold-covered remnants that still remain.
A state in which old and new concepts coexist harmoniously may be understood as a form of “negative feedback” or “unlearning” — a transformation of consciousness.
It means fundamentally replacing old knowledge, systems, and assumptions with new understanding. It means actively abandoning much of what humanity has previously learned.
In other words, what humanity should seek is:
“A quiet, sustainable, and deeply ordinary transformation of consciousness — a world that moves forward while steadily sweeping outdated assumptions aside.”
True Happiness
The tragic condition of humanity in the twenty-first century exposes the limitations of science, technology, politics, law, education, religion, art, and even human wisdom itself.
If that were not the case, healthy politics would already prevail, and war would long ago have disappeared from the Earth.
Japan has often been described as “a peaceful nation without war.” But is that truly so?
Can we continue turning away from unresolved postwar issues, wars and conflicts in other countries and regions, hunger, poverty, and the issue of abducted Japanese citizens?
Can one nation continue calling itself peaceful while order collapses elsewhere in the world?
Surely such matters cannot simply be dismissed as “someone else’s problem.”
To do so violates the implicit promise shared with eight billion people. Abandoning the right of others to live strongly suggests that one’s own right to live may someday meet the same fate.
We too bear responsibility for the despair of the young girl standing before the ruins, the starving infant lying weakly on the ground, the crying child beside a dead mother, the abandoned corpses of soldiers, and the countless war orphans.
At the root of this tragedy lies the lonely mindset that says:
“That’s happening in another country.”
“It has nothing to do with me.”
“That’s just how the world is.”
Such resignation and indifference have been created, tolerated, and normalized by society itself.
We must not simply accept such a distorted world as inevitable. We must not surrender with the words, “Nothing can be done.”
Such passive thinking treats war as though it were merely another ordinary part of life.
It is no different from endlessly consuming mold-covered breadcrumbs without question — and then feeding them to children as well.
Is this truly happiness?
If humanity continues along this path, even centuries from now we will not move one step closer to genuine peace. It would amount to voluntarily abandoning our own right to live freely.
The Lament of Homo Sapiens
Nearly a century has passed since the last world war. Has humanity become even slightly wiser during that time?
Certainly, science and technology have advanced. Yet from the perspective of peace, humanity has not grown wiser at all. The world continues forward while preserving war as an acceptable option.
Even Homo sapiens — “wise humans” — who are believed to have appeared roughly 300,000 years ago, would likely be astonished at the sight of the reckless conflicts taking place across today’s Earth.
They would surely cry out:
“What is this!?”
“Was this truly the extent of wisdom our descendants could achieve?”
They would be shocked by humanity’s foolishness and lack of judgment, and despair over the future of civilization.
And perhaps they would lament that, had they possessed language and writing as we do today, they would have left behind a message saying:
“Be wiser. Live together in peace.”
The victims of military competition are always the children and young people who should inherit the future. Such competition restricts their freedom to choose their own paths. It is no different from stealing their future itself.
In the case of Japan, societies envisioned by politicians lacking future-oriented vision make it difficult for people to maintain hope.
This creates among adults a kind of resignation toward the future, and that atmosphere spreads to children through everyday family conversations.
As a result, a society in which freedom itself becomes restricted leads young people toward disappointment, hopelessness, and apathy. In turn, this contributes indirectly to social withdrawal, school refusal, bullying, violence, suicide, and even murder. Humanity must examine the underlying causes behind such conditions and seriously consider how to improve society and the world — how to create a future that offers young people brighter, more hopeful lives filled with genuine possibility.
