Hiroshima Day

Today is the anniversary of the day that I arrived in Shanghai one year ago. It's an easy date to remember because it's also another anniversary, Hiroshima Day, commemorating that day in 1945 when the United States dropped its first atomic bomb on Japan. I remember learning as a teenager that the bomb had been dropped reluctantly in order to end the war quickly and avoid the massive military casualties that would have resulted from a land-based invasion of the country. Back then I believed this fairy tale. Of course, the true reasons behind the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki were rather more ugly and are nicely summarised in an excerpt from this site:

• The US had made a huge investment in time, mind and money ($2,000,000,000 in 1940 dollars) to produce the bombs, and there was no inclination – and no guts – to stop the momentum.
• The US military – as did its citizens – had a bloodthirsty appetite for revenge because of Pearl Harbor. Mercy wasn't the mind-set of these professed Christians, and the missions were accomplished – with glee.
• The Nagasaki bomb was a plutonium bomb and Hiroshima's was uranium. Scientific curiosity certainly was a major factor for the mass slaughter of the Nagasaki community. The decision to use both bombs had obviously been made well in advance. The three day interval was unconscionably inadequate – Japan being in shambles in its communications and transportation capabilities – and besides, no one, not even the Japanese high command, fully understood what had happened at Hiroshima.
• The Russians had proclaimed their intent to enter the war with Japan 90 days after V- Day, which would have been Aug. 8, two days after Hiroshima. Indeed, Russia did declare war on August 8 and was marching across Manchuria when Nagasaki was incinerated. The US didn't want Japan surrendering to anybody else, especially a future enemy, so the first nuclear "messages" of the infantile Cold War were sent. Russia indeed received less of the spoils of war, and the two superpowers were mired in mutual moral bankruptcy and economic near-bankruptcy for the rest of the century.

These are the facts that spoil the fairy tale. Even so, there are some who would support the revenge motive and say that the Japanese got what they deserved for their dastardly and unprovoked bombing of Pearl Harbor. Like Hiroshima however, there is the fairy tale of Pearl Harbor, painted by the victors in the ensuing war, and then there is the ugly truth as comprehensively explained on this website and from which I've quoted below:

But comprehensive research has not only shown Washington knew in advance of the attack, but deliberately withheld its foreknowledge from our commanders in Hawaii in the hope that the “surprise” attack would catapult the U.S. into World War II.

Sound familiar? Of course it does. The same scenario as 9/11. It worked in 1940 and it worked again more than sixty years later. As Roosevelt said in his 1940 election-year speech: “I have said this before, but I shall say it again and again and again: Your boys are not going to be sent into any foreign wars.” You've got to love politicians, especially US Presidents like Truman (who cold-bloodedly authorised the Hiroshima bombing) and Roosevelt (who acted so surprised and outraged when he got the news about Pearl Harbor). Let's remember on Hiroshima Day that sixty-five years on, Washington is just as duplicitous as ever and is still spinning fairy tales.