77 Years Ago – 6 August 1945

Posted on by under Global Issues, History, Political commentary

Today, 06 August 2022, marks the 77th anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima by the United States.  This post is partly a repost of the one I did two years ago, but I have updated it and added just a bit.  I know many disagree with me, but in my opinion, the bombing of Hiroshima, and three days later Nagasaki, were nothing short of war crimes, of crimes against humanity.  Approximately 210,000 people died as a direct result of those two bombings.. These people were not the military brass who were leading the Japanese army and navy in attacks against the allies, nor were they even the soldiers who were following orders.  They were innocents — senior citizens, women, children, civil servants — people who were only going about their lives until suddenly … BOOM … they no longer had lives to go about.  I will always believe that the use of nuclear weaponry is wrong.  Period.

In 2016, then-President Barack Obama attended the annual ceremony of the observance of the anniversary at Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park, attended by some 50,000 people representing 80 nations.  Prime Minister Shinzo Abe called for global cooperation to end nuclear weapons.

“For us to truly realize a world without nuclear weapons, the participation of both nuclear weapon states and non-nuclear weapon states is necessary.”

In July of that year, the United Nations reached its first agreement to ban nuclear weapons. But Japan, along with the nine nuclear-armed nations, including the United States, refused to take part in the negotiations and the vote, saying it does nothing to counter the “grave threat posed by North Korea’s nuclear program.”

Japan already adheres to a policy of not possessing, producing or allowing nuclear weapons on its territory. It is the only country to have ever come under nuclear attack.  So far.

U.N. Secretary General António Guterres issued a message calling for the United States and other nuclear-armed countries to do more to rid the world of nuclear weapons.

“Our dream of a world free of nuclear weapons remains far from reality. The states possessing nuclear weapons have a special responsibility to undertake concrete and irreversible steps in nuclear disarmament.”

Every president since 1945 has worked toward test bans and global reduction of nuclear weapons … until the Trump administration who seriously considered resuming nuclear testing.   Trump withdrew the United States from arms treaties including the landmark INF agreement and the Iran nuclear deal. Today, there are more than 13,000 nuclear warheads worldwide according the Arms Control Association, most of them held by the United States and Russia.

Given Russia’s war on Ukraine and the potential fallout of support for Ukraine by the United States and many European nations, the tension is higher than it once was, the threat of a nuclear war has increased, especially with a man at the helm in Russia who lacks a conscience, who cares not one whit about human lives, even those in his own nation.  It is more important than ever that we find a way of disarmament … but I’m spitting in the wind as our late friend Hugh used to tell me often.

Contrary to the “dream of a world free of nuclear weapons”, in February 2017 Donald Trump told Reuters that “if countries are going to have nukes, we’re going to be at the top of the pack.”  Trump, in fact, has said some chilling things along those lines:

  • Trump said he might use nuclear weapons and questioned why we would make them if we wouldn’t use them. – March 2016
  • “Europe is a big place. I’m not going to take cards off the table.” (Answering a question whether he would ever ‘nuke’ Europe) – March 2016
  • Trump said that “you want to be unpredictable” with nuclear weapons – January 2016
  • Trump reiterated that it was important to be “unpredictable” with nuclear weapons – March 2016
  • Trump said he’d be OK with a nuclear arms race in Asia – May 2016

Now, ordinarily I would have taken Trump’s comments out of this updated post, for he is gone, he is history … but there is a chance that he will re-occupy the Oval Office if the U.S. Department of Justice does not do a proper job of charging and convicting him of his crimes in office, so I think it remains important to realize his views on nuclear war.

In my opinion, the absolute worst invention in the world … ever … was the invention of nuclear weapons that are capable of killing hundreds of thousands of people in a matter of seconds.  This is not a toy, not something funny to play around with, and it is damn sure not something that should be used to threaten other nations.

When I originally published this post two years ago, our friend Ellen provided a quote by John Steinbeck from his 1958 book “Once There Was A War”:

“All war is a symptom of man’s failure as a thinking animal.”

Truer words were never spoken.  Today, let us simply remember the atrocities, the horrors, of August 6th and August 9th, 1945.  And let us hope that somehow, someday, we can have a world free of the nuclear threat.

In Memory …

testing of atomic bomb over ocean with mushroom clouds – red destroy

hiroshima-8.jpg

Related post: On President Obama’s Visit to Hiroshima

18 thoughts on “77 Years Ago – 6 August 1945”

  1. I agree that the use of atomic bombs on Japan were crimes against humanity, as was the fire bombing of Dresden. They were deliberate attacks on civilian populations in order to achieve a military outcome.

    I am proud of the stand my country has taken against nuclear weapons even when it has come at the cost of being expelled from security alliances. It’s a stance that has the support of the majority of the population, so much so that there’s no political party prepared to rescind our anti-nuclear weapons legislation.

    Liked by 1 person

    • I would be proud, too, if I lived in your country. Mass murder of civilians is never, at least in my mind, justified. I hear the excuse, “Well, many more would have died if the war had gone on longer.” Maybe, maybe not … we have no way of knowing, but these were CIVILIANS! People who had done nothing to deserve being wiped off the face of the earth in a split second. It’s a lousy argument, I think … and there were other ways to end the war. I wish the people in this country had half as much sense as the people of your country, in this and many other areas!

      Liked by 1 person

  2. Trump with his finger on /that/ button is what scared everyone else in the world. While the US was the ‘good guy’, it was easier to forget that it has the capacity to destroy the entire world many times over. Now that the world has realised how easy it is for the US to become the bad guy, trust has plummeted. 😦

    Liked by 2 people

    • I’m not sure we can be considered the ‘good guys’ anymore, my friend. Oh, I think we’re safe at the moment, with President Biden at the helm, but under any Republican president going forward, I wouldn’t bet a peanut on it … they seem to love violence, love power, and think themselves somehow superior to all others. Trust should have plummeted … the world should demand the disarmament of both the U.S. and Russia. But, we both know that cannot happen … sadly, the U.S. is no better than Russia in such matters.

      Liked by 1 person

  4. Pingback: 77 Years Ago – 6 August 1945 | Ned Hamson's Second Line View of the News

  5. Couldn’t agree more with you….. a very, very sad ‘anniversary’ indeed. Thank you, dearest Jill, for not forgetting to remind us about these events too. Even if we were, at that time, still less than a flick of dust to become a human being, a powerful reminder of an event of such magnitude serves us well to ponder over for a moment.

    Liked by 1 person

    • Yes, it is important that we never forget these human atrocities, for if we forget, we will be destined to repeat them. Thank you, Kiki, for understanding and supporting my reason for this anniversary post!

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  6. Pingback: 77 Years Ago – 6 August 1945 | Filosofa’s Word | Ned Hamson's Second Line View of the News

  7. “Russia’s war on Ukraine”

    Conspiracy theory!
    Will anyone ever listen to the Russians??? They stated over and over again that they are not at war. Neither with the Ukraine nor any other country. And Russians may be many things, liars they are not.

    What we witness right now is a small, restricted special military operation. A punitive and livesaving expedition in support of the long-suffering Donbass republics. The whole free world should – and does to 80% – stand behind Russia and support their effort. Fortunately it’s only a small western bubble standing in the way of global peace.

    Believe me, if the Russians made war on Ukraine it would’ve been over in a couple hours and there would be nothing left of it but a Mad Max desert.

    Like

    • A small restricted operation? Who are you kidding? Millions of refugees and displaced persons results from a war. Perhaps they are creations of NZ television reporters who have hired thousands of actors to pretend to be refugees crossing borders out of Ukraine? Yeah right.

      I have seen the devastation wrought upon Ukrainian cities in images received from online friends who live there. Some of them no longer have a neighbourhood to return to. Care to explain how that’s a “limited operation”?

      Liked by 1 person

  8. I do wish nuclear weapons could be banned, but I do not see it happening anytime in the near future. As long as this world is divided into separate nations, aggression is a real possibility. Granted there is no sane way to use nuclear weapons, but still the threat of using them, as Putin is doing right now, is a powerful weapon in itself.
    I do hope humanity comes to its senses, but too many world leaders are insane. The best way to rid the world of nuclear weapons is to rid the world of all borders, and turn planet Earth into one political entity. And even that would not be a guarantee of disarming all nucleat weapons…
    Crazy people will fear attack from Outer Space, despite the logistics of such an attack being nigh on impossible to overcome.

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