NAGASAKI, JAPAN, AUGUST 9, 1945
Eighty years
ago today, August 9, 1945, the United States dropped a nuclear bomb on the
civilian population of Nagasaki, Japan.
Three days
earlier, on August 6, the U.S. had bombed the civilian population of Hiroshima,
instantly killing 70,000 of the civilian population of 255,000.
The second bomb was unnecessary, as the Japanese had already signaled their intention to surrender. (Read American Prometheus Oppenheimer.)
The bomb over Nagasaki detonated 1,600 feet above the city, with the force of 21,000 tons of TNT, instantly disintegrating or burning to death 40,000 of the 195,00 population. With 100,000 deaths estimated by the end of the year.
The eventual
death toll of the two bombs could range as high as one-quarter of a million
men, women, children, and the elderly.
Birth
defects in Japan as a result of radiation continued for generations.
(Too disturbing to show.)
When you win a war, you can delete any history that is disturbing.
"Who controls the past, ran the party slogan, controls the future: Who controls the present controls the past."
1984 by George Orwell
the Ol'Buzzard
I have visited the Peace Memorial Park in Hiroshima. It was profoundly moving. I did not go inside the Museum though because its contents are too disturbing to view.
ReplyDeleteI too did a Blog Post on this, atrocities committed against non-combatants is never the "Right Thing to do", tho' people will argue doing this to Civilians in Two large Cities was "The Right Thing to do", I disagree. They had a Special called "Atomic People", I wept thru the whole Documentary, Survivors, almost all who were Children when they became Hibakusha, were Interviewed. They had been forbidden by both Japan and America to tell their Story until quite recently, becoz so much was Covered Up about what we did AFTERWARDS, not providing Treatment and Comfort, but Scientifically just interested in the effects of Radiation on Human Beings, like they were Lab Rats or Guinea Pigs!!! And you definitely won't see or hear that in our History Books. Not Surprising since there is also nothing about the attempted Genocide of Indigenous Tribes. My Dad was Native American and atrocities were still happening to his People well into the 20th Century... and things aren't a whole lot better even now for Indigenous People around the World, who are often Dehumanized as well. There is a lot of Bad History and failing to document it means we learn Nothing about NOT repeating it, which we're doomed to do if it's covered up and a Taboo Topic.
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