Wisdom in Crisis Through Altruistic Leadership: Two Examples From the Hiroshima Atomic Attack Survivors

• In Event: Presentation | Anchoring Wisdom in Ethically Responsible Leadership

Short Description

This presentation will focus on exploring themes of wisdom, originating from connections between altruistic leadership and meaningfulness. We will be doing so by discussing the lives of two survivors of the Hiroshima Atomic Bomb attack, who displayed extraordinary wisdom by embodying altruistic leadership.

Detailed Abstract

Globalization has had a perverse consequence of sectarian and nationalistic sentiments in many countries around the world (Obstfeld, 2020). Insular nationalism played a key role in the Second World War. Covid-19 has exposed weaknesses in global cooperation, as for example over medical supplies, a development that does not speak well of global readiness to tackle big challenges that the world faces (Obstfeld, 2020). Nations should find a happy mean between “economic sovereignty” and global cooperation (p. 19). We argue that altruistic leadership can provide a good model for individuals and societies to pursue their self-interest along with fulfilling their humanitarian obligations. Kanungo and Mendonca (1998) have connected ethical leadership to “altruistic intent” of leaders (p. 137). Resick et al (2006) have also found a relationship between altruism and ethical leadership across different cultures. Altruism and “meaningfulness” have been linked together (Sagnak & Kuruoz, 2017, p. 451).

In this presentation, we explore connections between altruistic leadership and “meaningfulness”—“defined as the assessment of a purpose or goal of a work according to one’s own ideals and standards”—in the lives of two survivors of the Atomic Bomb attack on Hiroshima, Japan, on August 6, 1945. The story of these two survivors, Father Wilhelm Kleinsorge and Reverend Kiyoshi Tanimoto, has been immortalized in John Hersey’s 1946 classic Hiroshima. Not only did these two men follow the highest ideals of their spiritual calling in the immediate aftermath of the explosion, but they continued throughout their lives to care for others affected by the blast. Father Kleinsorge, a German by birth, made Japan his home and lived his whole life there. Reverend Tanimoto made several visits to the United States to seek funding for humanitarian projects and to seek medical treatment for young women disfigured by the blast.

Both individuals transcended their native cultures through altruistic leadership. We closely analyze narratives about these two men in Hersey’s book to illustrate their altruistic leadership, linking it to meaningful lives they both led. We will then describe what an altruistic leadership on a wider scale may look like. Both Kleinsorge and Tanimoto exemplified leadership through wisdom after an unprecedented and unsurpassed crisis that they faced. Not only did these two men not allow the crisis to destroy their lives, having been providentially saved from the blast, but they did not give in to bitterness or hatred and instead helped others overcome their physical and mental trauma due to the catastrophic event of the attack on Hiroshima. In summary, our presentation will provide case studies of two outstanding individual leaders who showed exemplary wisdom—through altruism—in a crisis that the humankind will never forget.

Participants

• Anish Dave, Georgia Southwestern State University
  Presenter

• Aditya Simha, University of Wisconsin - Whitewater
  Presenter

• Lazarina Topuzova, Robert Morris University
  Presenter