Atomic Message: 74 Years After (doco)
74 years after the US dropped nuclear bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the real reasons behind the decision still divide historians. Recent declassified documents from the time suggest that the nuclear strikes may have been performed not out of military necessity but to intimidate the USSR...
2019 Doomsday Clock Statement
https://thebulletin.org/doomsday-clock/current-time/
"A New Abnormal: It is still 2 minutes to midnight."
US Never Apologized to Japan For Atoming Bombings: Russian Diplomat
https://tass.com/politics/1072779
"Not a single American president has ever offered an apology to the people of Japan for the terrible and militarily senseless atomic bombings of the Japanese cities Hiroshima and Nagasaki..."
And the reason is obvious. They're not sorry.
Atomic Message: 74 Years After (doco)
74 years after the US dropped nuclear bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the real reasons behind the decision still divide historians. Recent declassified documents from the time suggest that the nuclear strikes may have been performed not out of military necessity but to intimidate the USSR...
In fact, long-established documents show that, no need to look to recently declassified documents alone. Any honest hostorian will concede that at least the timing of the bombs was to forestall Soviet gains in NE Asia.
I would suggest the thead title needs nauncing: this American crime was aided and abetted and possible with help from US allies, including Canada.
In fact, long-established documents show that, no need to look to recently declassified documents alone. Any honest hostorian will concede that at least the timing of the bombs was to forestall Soviet gains in NE Asia.
Yes, I feel I've know that for several decades. Don't think it's news, I agree with you.
I would suggest the thead title needs nauncing: this American crime was aided and abetted and possible with help from US allies, including Canada.
That's a bit more intriguing. Any evidence for that?
In fact, long-established documents show that, no need to look to recently declassified documents alone. Any honest hostorian will concede that at least the timing of the bombs was to forestall Soviet gains in NE Asia.
Yes, I feel I've know that for several decades. Don't think it's news, I agree with you.
I would suggest the thead title needs nauncing: this American crime was aided and abetted and possible with help from US allies, including Canada.
That's a bit more intriguing. Any evidence for that?
There are more detailed accounts on-line, but here's a thumbnail sketch...
I suppose, in defense of Canada, you could posit that Canada's politicians and scientists must have assumed that the bomb would be used in such a way so as to entail no loss of civilian life whatsoever. That's being pretty charitable, however.
Lots of material on Canada and the Manhattan project out there. As usual, Canada's contribution included a lot of dirty deeds on First Nations lands.
https://www.atomicheritage.org/location/canada
http://www.concordia.ca/cunews/main/stories/2015/08/06/anniversary-of-hiroshima-peter-van-wyck.html
https://www.canadashistory.ca/explore/science-technology/canada-s-a-bomb-secret
^ And the NFB film If You Love This Planet features clips from what I believe is an American newsreel, talking about the bombs and mentioning that some of the material was coming from Canada. So it was quite well publicized at the time, though not something much talked about these days.
Use of Canadian Uranium in the World's First Atomic Bombs
http://www.ccnr.org/uranium_in_bombs.html
"...It is a distinct pleasure for me to announce that Canadian scientists have played an intimate part, and have been associated in an effective way with this great scientific development." - CD Howe -
Hiroshima Remembered: Monsters Then & Now
http://gorillaradioblog.blogspot.com/2019/08/hiroshima-remembered-monste...
"American Values, an excellent Twitter account which publishes daily information about US atrocities, has just posted a thread for the anniversary of the nuclear bombing of Hiroshima, Japan, and I think everyone should have a look at it today:
'...Much of the US propaganda used during the war depicted the Japanese as subhumans and it's this attitude that helped the US government justify these atrocities to itself and to its population. One of the most reprehensible myths surrounding the bombings is the idea that they were 'necessary' to save lives. Serious historical work has disproven this. Nevertheless this myth remains because it alleviates the guilt [North] Americans would otherwise feel for their government[s] committing one of humanity's most atrocious war crimes..."
A Time Lapse Map of Every Nuclear Explosion Since 1945 - by Isao Hashimoto
Nuclear Risks on Rise, Canadians Must Fight For Disarmament
https://www.thechronicleherald.ca/opinion/national-perspectives/tamara-l...
"...Cities across Canada held commemorations this week to mark the 74th anniversary of the tragic atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. There are 108 Canadian cities that are part of Mayors For Peace, an international movement for the abolition of nuclear weapons...There are nine countries that possess approximately 14,000 nuclear weapons. Moreover all the nuclear weapons countries are modernizing their arsenals..."
Concerned Canadians would also do well to pay closer attention to recent developments surrounding a massive renovated NORAD redux and Canada's deepening involvement in the US nuclear 'defence umbrella'.
I suppose, in defense of Canada, you could posit that Canada's politicians and scientists must have assumed that the bomb would be used in such a way so as to entail no loss of civilian life whatsoever. That's being pretty charitable, however.
Would those be the same politicians that ethnically cleansed the West Coast of Japanese-Canadians and then stole all their possessions.
I suppose, in defense of Canada, you could posit that Canada's politicians and scientists must have assumed that the bomb would be used in such a way so as to entail no loss of civilian life whatsoever. That's being pretty charitable, however.Would those be the same politicians that ethnically cleansed the West Coast of Japanese-Canadians and then stole all their possessions.
Well, like I say, it would be a pretty charitable interpretation of the politicians' actions. That means I don't really buy it myself, and I pretty much just threw it out there as a prebuttal in case someone later chose to make the argument.
Hiroshima helps us forget the horrible crime of the intensive bombing of German and Japanese civilians in the last year and a half of the war. By 1943 Japan and Germany had LOST (any chance of winning or even keeping their conquests) At the famous 1943 conference in Quebec City, Churchill and Roosevelt were shown the new Walt Disney film "Victory Through Air Power" proposing massive bombardment. This crime of the winners was not judged at Nurenberg just as Western Democratic crimes won't be judged by their feel-good creation, the ICC in the Hague. As Canada supplied the uranium we now supply much moral humanitarian self-righteous justification for the ICC. We recently gave $3 million to some legal expert who is preparing the case against Assad at the Hague. That should go to victims of the civil war that Obama (not Trump) helped start.
Lets send the UN after them.
75 years after, the American psychos we call 'our closest ally' may be getting ready to do it again...
John Pilger: Another Hiroshima is Coming - Unless We Stop It Now
https://zcomm.org/znetarticle/another-hiroshima-is-coming-unless-we-stop...
"When I first went to Hiroshima in 1967, the shadow on the steps was still there. The atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki was an act of premeditated mass murder that unleashed a weapon of intrinsic criminality. It was justified by lies that form the bedrock of America's war propaganda in the 21st century, casting a new enemy and target - China..."
Alex Wellerstein is an academic historian who specializes in the history of nuclear weapons. I have been reading his blog, Restricted Data, for some years, and have read several articles about the reasons for the use of atomic bombs. As you would expect from a professional, his work is detailed, relying largely on primary sources and is very nuanced. Anyway, he wrote a piece a couple of months ago, entitled What journalists should know about the atomic bombings. I think it is very illuminating. He describes his objective thus:
One thing I want to say up front: there are many legitimate interpretations of the atomic bombings. Were they a good thing, or a bad thing? Were they moral acts, or essentially war crimes? Were they necessary, or not? Were they avoidable, or were they inevitable, once the US had the weapons? What would the most likely scenario have been if they weren’t used? How should we think about their legacies? And so on, and so on. I’m not saying you have to subscribe to any one answer to those. However, a lot of people are essentially forced into one answer or another by bad historical takes, including bad historical takes that are systematically taught in US schools. There’s lot of room for disagreement, but let’s make sure we’re all on the same page about the broad historical facts, first. It is totally possible to agree with all of the below and think the atomic bombings were justified, and it’s totally possible to take the exact opposite position.
Alex Wellerstein is an academic historian who specializes in the history of nuclear weapons. I have been reading his blog, Restricted Data, for some years, and have read several articles about the reasons for the use of atomic bombs. As you would expect from a professional, his work is detailed, relying largely on primary sources and is very nuanced. Anyway, he wrote a piece a couple of months ago, entitled What journalists should know about the atomic bombings. I think it is very illuminating.
An excellent piece, and a nice antidote to the usual stuff ("Of COURSE it was right/wrong; how could anyone still POSSIBLY think otherwise?") that we get every August, either in columns, magazine pieces or forums like this one.
Surely, as Pilger emphasizes, (#16) the most important aspect of this awful anniversary is that we don't allow it to happen again. Here history professor Peter Kuznick highlights the significance of WWII and how the mass targeting of civilians became a legitimate practice of war.
Why Did Americans Accept Barbaric Slaughter of Japanese Civilians? - Peter Kuznick (podcast)
https://analysis.news/interviews/why-did-u-s-public-accept-barbaric-slau...
"We have grown callous to massacre..."
ATOMIC BOMBINGS at 75: From Hiroshima to Collateral Murder (and vid)
https://consortiumnews.com/2020/08/05/atomic-bombings-at-75-from-hiroshi...
"War crimes, empire and the prosecution of the free press."
The Very Un-Christian Nagasaki Bomb
https://consortiumnews.com/2020/08/09/the-very-un-christian-nagasaki-bomb
"An all-Christian American crew used the steeple of Japan's most prominent Christian Church as the target for an act of unspeakable barbarism writes Gary G Kohls. What Imperial Japan couldn't do in 250 years American Christians did in nine seconds. Some of the victims' progeny are still suffering from the trans-generational malignancies and immune deficiencies caused..."
Democracy Now: 'The Beginning Of Our End'
https://www.democracynow.org/2020/8/6/hideko_tamura_snider_hiroshima_75t...
"On 75th anniversary, Hiroshima survivor warns against nuclear weapons."
#nagasaki
https://twitter.com/Gol_Chang/status/1292420479198720000
"A boy standing in the line of a crematorium, carrying his brother's dead body. 1945 August after atomic bomb in Nagasaki."
#hiroshima #neveragain #nuclearban
https://twitter.com/TimMilesWright/status/1423561171823595524
"More than 140,000 people killed. Nearly all of them civilians. Not a single person ever held accountable."
'Canada's closest friend and ally.' Also, see #8
Blinded by the Light, Remembering Hiroshima & Nagasaki in the Age of Normalized Violence
https://www.counterpunch.org/2021/08/06/blinded-by-the-light-remembering...
"On Monday, August 6, 1945, the United States unleashed an atomic bomb on Hiroshima killing 140,000 people instantly. 70% of the city was destroyed.
A few days later on August 9th, another atomic bomb was dropped on Nagasaki. Kenzaburo Oe, the Nobel Prize winner for literature, noted that in spite of attempts to justify the bombing 'from the instant the atomic bomb exploded, it became the symbol of human evil, the absolute evil of war..."
If I attack a lion with my bare hands I expect to get killed. Japan attacked the US. What did they expect would happen? Did they really expect the US to react reasonably? Was targeting civilians in war something new and unexpected? The atomic bomb was new but the constant development of more powerful weapons isn't new.
The US is the boogie man because they are the most powerful but any other country with the ability to become the most powerful would be equally brutal. The powerful are the same throughout the world.
"...We talk to Dr Helen Caldicott, who draws our attention to the realities of nuclear power reactors, proliferation and weapons. as well as the ways in which nuclearism has already wrought an unimaginable amount of havoc and trauma on our environment, culture and bodies." Listen. Hear.
https://forthewild.world/listen/dr-helen-caldicott-on-nuclear-narcissism...
