Improvement Insights Blog

In Seoul, South Korea, I realized I was born during the Korean war. WWII affected my life. Having been to the sites of major attacks, there are lessons to be learned. Here are my thoughts.

“Well hi, I’m Jay Arthur, author of “Lean Six Sigma Demystified” and QI Macros [software].

“I’m here in Seoul, South Korea. We just finished up a cruise of Japan, which was very interesting. I realized my wife and I were both born in 1951, which was right in the middle of the Korean War. That was 70-plus years ago. I think because we were born 6 years after World War II, it was very impactful for me, anyway; I don’t know about my wife.

“Anyway, over the course of maybe 4 years, I went to Pearl Harbor and stood at the Arizona Memorial and overlooked the USS Arizona in its shallow grave down there, with little bits of oil bubbling up. It was a very emotional experience. I’ve been to Omaha Beach last year, and that was also a very moving experience [seeing] where the Americans landed. I’ve also stood… probably 50 years [ago], I’ve stood in the concentration camp Dachau, where the foundations were for all the buildings and the furnaces and everything else. That was also a very moving experience.

“This year I wanted to come back and actually go to Japan, so we visited Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Oddly enough, where I’ve felt connected to these other places like Pearl and Omaha and Dachau, I did not feel a connection. It was a couple of days later when I realized that, oh… that’s because in both of these places one minute there were people and animals and houses and plants and everything else, and the next second everything for a kilometer was completely vaporized. The fireball traveled out for another 6 miles… 6 kilometers, and then came back in forming the mushroom cloud. It’s as if there was a switch, and one minute the lights were on and the next second the lights were off, so there was nothing to connect to… just nothing.

“In Hiroshima and Nagasaki they say “No more Hiroshimas, no more Nagasakis,” and in Nagasaki they say “Let Nagasaki be the last city to be bombed.” I think that’s a pretty good message for the world. I’m not sure how many people see it. You know, last year was the 80th anniversary of the D-Day landings at Omaha; this year is the 80th anniversary of the atomic bombs – that’ll be in August.

“This is one of those things where over the years I’ve gone to all the places that had ‘big medicine’ in the war, and all I can tell you is war is not a good thing. Let’s see if we can avoid that. I’m not sure… you know, I’ve lived through the Vietnam War and Iraq and Iran and Afghanistan, and let’s stop having wars and let’s stop having people think about using nuclear weapons. Not a good plan.

“I’m Jay Arthur, that’s my Improvement Insight. Let’s go out and improve something this week, like the world as we know it.”