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.

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Armageddon: the Big, Big Issue

  

                                

Recently, at a political fundraiser, President Biden warned that the war in Ukraine has brought us closer to nuclear Armageddon than we have been since the Cuban Missile crisis of over 60 years ago. Younger readers may not know that shortly after the Communist revolution in Cuba, the then Soviet Union placed nuclear weapons in Cuba during the administration of President Kennedy. Although young and inexperienced, Kennedy was vigorous and surrounded by capable advisors. Fortunately, both sides stepped back and a nuclear Armageddon was avoided.

Now, President Biden claims that Armageddon again threatens because of the war in Ukraine. We have reached this situation under his watch. He has been President for almost two years and can no longer blame ex-President Trump. Neither can he blame the Republican party since they control neither House of Congress. He does blame President Putin of Russia, but Biden is leader of the free world. Any war represents a failure of diplomacy. Even without a nuclear exchange, the death and destruction on both sides in Ukraine is a colossal diplomatic failure on the part of the Biden administration.

No matter what you think about Donald Trump, we did have four years of peace during his term. It is true that we had the pandemic but we had peace. It is a disgrace that he did not get the Nobel Peace Prize for negotiating the Abraham accords in the Middle East. Although the claims of Democrats that Trump colluded with Russia have now been proven to be a hoax, what President Trump actually did seemed to do the job. During his administration there was no Russian invasion of Ukraine.

You may remember that during the previous Obama/ Biden administration, Russia invaded and took over part of Ukraine with virtually no opposition. During that administration Vice-President Biden had been put in charge of Ukrainian affairs.  Among other things he threatened to withhold all aid to Ukraine unless the government dismissed an official investigating corruption. At the same time, his son, Hunter Biden, got a very lucrative sinecure with a Ukrainian energy firm.

Now fast-forward to today’s Biden administration. I still believe that the Biden administration must bear much of the blame for the war in Ukraine. About this time last year President Biden publicly announced that he saw no reason why Ukraine should not be considered for membership in NATO. These words were a provocation to Russia. We were threatening to place NATO forces and weapons smack up against the Russian border. Moreover, the entrance of Ukraine into NATO would have committed US forces to the defense of that country.

Just months after President Biden’s announcement, President Putin responded with a massive invasion of Ukraine, something that he had declined to do during the four years of the Trump administration. If you think that peace was maintained during the Trump era by collusion with Russia, then let’s have more collusion. 

Since the inception of the bloody conflict that now even threatens a catastrophic nuclear exchange, what has the Biden administration done? Has the President emerged as a passionate voice for peace? Has he called for negotiations to end the conflict? No, he has taken sides and step by step has participated in the escalation of the conflict to the point where he now raises the specter of Armageddon. 

During the Cuban Missile Crisis we were on the brink of nuclear war when Russian nuclear missiles were placed in Cuba 90 miles away from our border. Now, we are shipping potent missiles to Ukraine right on the Russian border. Back then, a young President Kennedy negotiated a settlement to bring us back from the brink. Now that our aged President has raised the specter of Armageddon, it is time for him to also step back from the brink, and stop escalating the conflict. 

The conflict in Ukraine is the big, big issue facing us today. It is such more serious than climate change, crime, inflation, the border, or abortion. A recent alarming news item indicated that we have just sent almost 5000 American soldiers to the Ukrainian border. What's next?

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The Guns of August

 

                                             

In all my long life I have never been as concerned at the prospect of a devastating nuclear war than I am now that war is raging in Ukraine. Russia, one of the participants, has the world's largest nuclear arsenal. NATO, backed by the USA, has taken steps to increase its forces  and prepare its armaments. I fear that an accident or mistake could be catastrophic. I am reminded of events that occurred in August over a hundred years ago. Below is a post I wrote on the events of August 1914 that led to the outbreak of the First World War, as well as to the even more devastating Second World War. 

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This summer media sources are remembering the start of the First World War 100 years ago in August 1914. Somewhat overshadowed has been the events of August, 1945 that brought the Second World War to an end. 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 their 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, 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. 

Note; Now in 2022 it seems to me that the preservation of this peace is the most important issue of the day. It is far far more important than any other issue facing us today. The consequences of a nuclear exchange would be far more devastating than climate change or any other popular issue. Our government has just decided to spend an incredible amount of money on a myriad of these issues but a spark in the Ukraine could start a fire that would make it all meaningless. 

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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.

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