Hiroshima and Nagasaki

Yesterday, August 6, marked the 80th anniversary of the dropping of the Atomic bomb on the Japanese city of Hiroshima. In Japan it was commemorated by the ringing of the Peace Bell. A few days later a second bomb was dropped on the Japanese city of Nagasaki with equally devastating results. Thankfully, so far the world has been spared from another nuclear catastrophe. Nevertheless, on the news the other day I heard that even one of our nuclear submarines carries enough Atomic bombs to wipe out 176 cities.  Ten years ago I wrote the following on the bombing.

 This August marks the seventieth anniversary of the end of World War II after the dropping of the Atomic Bomb on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Commentators are still debating the legitimacy of the decision to drop the bombs but no one questions the horrible devastation that was visited on the population of the two cities.

Thankfully over the last seventy years , despite the Cold War, Korea, Vietnam and the apparently unending conflicts in the Middle East, the world has avoided another nuclear catastrophe. Nevertheless, despite a shrinkage of the large nuclear arsenals of the USA and Russia, other nations have joined the list of those possessing nuclear weapons.

I do not want to comment on the Hiroshima/Nagasaki decision. Others, more informed than I, have long debated the pros and cons. Nor do I want to discuss the pending deal with Iran since no one as yet has anywhere near the information that the President and his advisors have.

PBS recently ran a documentary on the bombing of Hiroshima. In the re-creation a lone B-29 bomber is seen flying over Hiroshima, and in the next minute almost 100000 people are killed, maimed, or disfigured for life. They were people like us. Oddly enough, it made me think of Beethoven’s great symphony #9 with its magnificent choral ending, the Ode to Joy, based on the poem by Schiller.

The notes on my album claimed that Beethoven had considered putting the ode to Joy and Brotherhood to music for over twenty years.

We are all familiar with the opening strains in German.

Freude, schoner Gotterfunken.Tochter aus Elysium.Wir betreten, feuertrunken,Himmlische, dein Heiligthum.

Here is a full English translation of the text from this greatest of symphonies. It culminates in an affirmation of the brotherhood of man under one Creator.

Joy, thou gleaming spark divine,

Daughter of Elysium.

Drunk with ardor, we draw near,

Goddess, to your shrine.

Thy magic unites again

What custom sternly drew apart.

All mankind become brothers

Beneath thy gentle hovering wing.

He whose happy fortune grants him

Friend to have and friend to be.

Who has won a noble woman,

Let him join in our rejoicing!

Yes—even if it were one heart only

Beating for him in the world!

But if he has never known this,

Let him weeping steal from out our ranks.

Joy is drawn by every creature

From the breast of Nature.

All men good and all men evil

Walk upon her rose strewn path.

Kisses gave she and the ripe grape,

A good friend, trusty to the last.

Even the worm can feel pleasure,

And the Seraph stands before God.

Glad as suns that He hurtles

Through the vast spaces of heaven.

Pursue your pathway, brothers.

Be joyful as a hero in victory.

Millions, be you embraced!

For the universe, this kiss!

Brothers—above the canopy of stars

A loving Father surely dwells.

Millions, do you fall upon your knees?

Do you sense the Creator, world?

Seek him above the canopy of stars!

Surely He dwells above the stars.

Click here for a five minute flashmob doing the end of the chorale or just go to the video below.

 

Hiroshima and Nagasaki Revisited

 

                                             

 On August 5, 1945 a U.S. Air Force bomber dropped the first atomic bomb on the Japanese city of Hiroshima. Four days later a second atomic bomb was dropped on the port city of Nagasaki. Five days later  on August 15 Japanese Emperor Hirohito and the Japanese government agreed to accede to Allied demands and surrender unconditionally. 

Earlier that year, on May 8, 1945, the European Allies had accepted the surrender of Germany after Hitler’s suicide. VE Day marked the end of the war in Europe and the Allies could now turn their full attention to the defeat of Japan. Joseph Stalin, the brutal Communist dictator in Russia, had refused to open an Asian front against Japan until the defeat of Germany. 

After VE Day Stalin agreed to launch an attack on the Japanese puppet state in Mongolia within three months. On July 26, 1945 the Allied leaders met at Potsdam and issued a demand to Japan to surrender unconditionally or face utter destruction. While the Russians built up their forces in the East, the United States launched a series of devastating firebomb attacks on Japanese cities from recently taken islands in the Pacific.

When these attacks failed to bring the Japanese to their knees, the Allies made preparations for a full-scale attack on the Japanese mainland. Massive casualties were projected on both sides.  Finally, by the beginning of August scientists had successfully tested the Atom bomb. President Truman then made the decision to use the bomb.

I was six years old at the time and have only the slightest recollection of that world-shattering event. I don’t think anyone at the time could have imagined the awful destruction caused by those two bombs. A few years later, after the Soviet Union had managed to steal the technology and build their own bomb, I remember participating in air raid drills in school. Teachers told us to crouch under our desks or just put our heads on the desks with our hands over them. I guess that this exercise was to protect against shattered windows but even we children realized its futility.

As  I got older I became somewhat aware of the debate that had gone on within the Truman administration about the decision to drop the bomb, as well as the debate that still goes on among scholars and other commentators about the necessity and morality of the action. I’m sure that this question is one in which there are strong arguments on both sides. For myself, I still wonder why it was necessary to drop the second bomb on Nagasaki only four days after Hiroshima. 

Coincidentally, at the time Nagasaki was the most Christian city in Japan. The day the Japanese government agreed to surrender was August 15, for Catholics the feast day of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary into Heaven. Although Catholics had celebrated the feast of the Assumption on August 15 for centuries, the doctrine had never been officially defined by the Church. 

Maybe it was the awful destruction of the Second World War, maybe it was the horror of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and maybe it was the prospect of an atomic arms race, but only five years after the surrender of Japan on August 15, Pope Pius XII, in a rare exercise of Papal infallibility, declared that belief in the Assumption of Mary was a binding doctrine of the Catholic church.

So far, despite the Cold War and the continued development of nuclear weapons, the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki remain unique.  Although warfare has continued, there has thankfully been no worldwide conflagration to match either WWI  or WWII. It might not seem so, but since August 15, 1945 we have witnessed an unprecedented era of peace between world powers.

 One of the reasons I voted for Donald Trump in 2016 was his stated concern about the danger of nuclear war. I cannot find the exact source but I recall that when he was asked about the greatest issue facing the country, he put the threat of nuclear war at the top of the list. Given the events of the past four years,  I believe that it should still be at the top of the list in the 2024 Presidential campaign,. It certainly far surpasses in importance any issues that "progressive Democrats" have raised since 2016.

###

Hiroshima and Nagasaki Revisited

                                             

 On August 5, 1945 a U.S. Air Force bomber dropped the first atomic bomb on the Japanese city of Hiroshima. Four days later a second atomic bomb was dropped on the port city of Nagasaki. Five days later  on August 15 Japanese Emperor Hirohito and the Japanese government agreed to accede to Allied demands and surrender unconditionally. 

Earlier that year, on May 8, 1945, the European Allies had accepted the surrender of Germany after Hitler’s suicide. VE Day marked the end of the war in Europe and the Allies could now turn their full attention to the defeat of Japan. Joseph Stalin, the brutal Communist dictator in Russia, had refused to open an Asian front against Japan until the defeat of Germany. 

After VE Day Stalin agreed to launch an attack on the Japanese puppet state in Mongolia within three months. On July 26, 1945 the Allied leaders met at Potsdam and issued a demand to Japan to surrender unconditionally or face utter destruction. While the Russians built up their forces in the East, the United States launched a series of devastating firebomb attacks on Japanese cities from recently taken islands in the Pacific.

When these attacks failed to bring the Japanese to their knees, the Allies made preparations for a full-scale attack on the Japanese mainland. Massive casualties were projected on both sides.  Finally, by the beginning of August scientists had successfully tested the Atom bomb. President Truman then made the decision to use the bomb.

I was six years old at the time and have only the slightest recollection of that world-shattering event. I don’t think anyone at the time could have imagined the awful destruction caused by those two bombs. A few years later, after the Soviet Union had managed to steal the technology and build their own bomb, I remember participating in air raid drills in school. Teachers told us to crouch under our desks or just put our heads on the desks with our hands over them. I guess that this exercise was to protect against shattered windows but even we children realized its futility.

As  I got older I became somewhat aware of the debate that had gone on within the Truman administration about the decision to drop the bomb, as well as the debate that still goes on among scholars and other commentators about the necessity and morality of the action. I’m sure that this question is one in which there are strong arguments on both sides. For myself, I still wonder why it was necessary to drop the second bomb on Nagasaki only four days after Hiroshima. 

Coincidentally, at the time Nagasaki was the most Christian city in Japan. The day the Japanese government agreed to surrender was August 15, for Catholics the feast day of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary into Heaven. Although Catholics had celebrated the feast of the Assumption on August 15 for centuries, the doctrine had never been officially defined by the Church. 

Maybe it was the awful destruction of the Second World War, maybe it was the horror of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and maybe it was the prospect of an atomic arms race, but only five years after the surrender of Japan on August 15, Pope Pius XII, in a rare exercise of Papal infallibility, declared that belief in the Assumption of Mary was a binding doctrine of the Catholic church.

So far, despite the Cold War and the continued development of nuclear weapons, the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki remain unique.  Although warfare has continued, there has thankfully been no worldwide conflagration to match either WWI  or WWII. It might not seem so, but since August 15, 1945 we have witnessed an unprecedented era of peace between world powers.

 One of the reasons I voted for Donald Trump in 2016 was his stated concern about the danger of nuclear war. I cannot find the exact source but I recall that when he was asked about the greatest issue facing the country, he put the threat of nuclear war at the top of the list. In the coming 2020 Presidential campaign, I believe that it should still be at the top of the list. It certainly far surpasses in importance any issues that "progressive Democrats" have raised since 2016.

###

Hiroshima and Nagasaki 2017

The Weekly Bystander is still on its August break so here is a post from 2015 about the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki that brought an end to World War II. It is sadly relevant given the current heightened threat of a nuclear disaster.

                                         

This August marks the seventieth anniversary of the end of World War II after the dropping of the Atomic Bomb on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Commentators are still debating the legitimacy of the decision to drop the bombs but no one questions the horrible devastation that was visited on the population of the two cities.

Thankfully over the last seventy years , despite the Cold War, Korea, Vietnam and the apparently unending conflicts in the Middle East, the world has avoided another nuclear catastrophe. Nevertheless, despite a shrinkage of the large nuclear arsenals of the USA and Russia, other nations have joined the list of those possessing nuclear weapons.

I do not want to comment on the Hiroshima/Nagasaki decision. Others, more informed than I, have long debated the pros and cons. Nor do I want to discuss the pending deal with Iran since no one as yet has anywhere near the information that the President and his advisors have.

PBS recently ran a documentary on the bombing of Hiroshima. In the re-creation a lone B-29 bomber is seen flying over Hiroshima, and in the next minute almost 100000 people are killed, maimed, or disfigured for life. They were people like us. Oddly enough, it made me think of Beethoven’s great symphony #9 with its magnificent choral ending, the Ode to Joy, based on the poem by Schiller.

The notes on my album claimed that Beethoven had considered putting the ode to Joy and Brotherhood to music for over twenty years.

We are all familiar with the opening strains in German.

Freude, schoner Gotterfunken.Tochter aus Elysium.Wir betreten, feuertrunken,Himmlische, dein Heiligthum.

Here is a full English translation of the text from this greatest of symphonies. It culminates in an affirmation of the brotherhood of man under one Creator.

Joy, thou gleaming spark divine,

Daughter of Elysium.

Drunk with ardor, we draw near,

Goddess, to your shrine.

Thy magic unites again

What custom sternly drew apart.

All mankind become brothers

Beneath thy gentle hovering wing.

He whose happy fortune grants him

Friend to have and friend to be.

Who has won a noble woman,

Let him join in our rejoicing!

Yes—even if it were one heart only

Beating for him in the world!

But if he has never known this,

Let him weeping steal from out our ranks.

Joy is drawn by every creature

From the breast of Nature.

All men good and all men evil

Walk upon her rose strewn path.

Kisses gave she and the ripe grape,

A good friend, trusty to the last.

Even the worm can feel pleasure,

And the Seraph stands before God.

Glad as suns that He hurtles

Through the vast spaces of heaven.

Pursue your pathway, brothers.

Be joyful as a hero in victory.

Millions, be you embraced!

For the universe, this kiss!

Brothers—above the canopy of stars

A loving Father surely dwells.

Millions, do you fall upon your knees?

Do you sense the Creator, world?

Seek him above the canopy of stars!

Surely He dwells above the stars.

Click here for a five minute flashmob doing the end of the chorale or just go to the video below.