Is mother still proud of little boy today ?
“Enola Gay, You should have stayed at home yesterday, Ah-ha words can’t describe, The feeling and the way you lied”
Today around this time 70 years ago, the United States of America dropped a uranium gun-type atomic bomb (Little Boy) on Hiroshima at 8.15 on August 6, 1945. For anyone who detests wars like I do and thinks governments should go to much greater lengths to avoid conflicts, this anniversary is an important one and one that no one should ever forget.
Little Boy reaping destruction
Though Hiroshima has risen from the rubble to become a thriving city of 3 million, most of whom were born after the war; the anniversary underscores its on going tragedy. Officials estimated that about 140,000 people were killed instantly or died within a few months after the Enola Gay dropped its deadly payload over the city.
Three days later, another US bomber, Bock’s Car, dropped a plutonium bomb on the city of Nagasaki, killing about 80,000 people. Japan surrendered on August 15 1945, bringing the Second World War to a close. Including those initially listed as missing or who died afterward from a loosely defined set of bomb-related ailments, including cancers, Hiroshima officials now put the total number of the dead in this city alone at 242,437. This year, 5,373 more names were added to the list.
Fumie Yoshida, who survived the blast but lost her father, brother and sister, said in 2005, “My father’s remains have never been found,” she said. “Those of us who went through this all know that we must never repeat this tragedy. But I think many Japanese today are forgetting.” – Yoshida was 16 when Hiroshima was bombed.
The debates whether the Americans should or shouldn’t have dropped both devices are varied. America’s own US Strategic Bombing Survey of 1946 came to an even more astounding conclusion.
“Even without the atomic bombing attacks, air supremacy over Japan could have exerted sufficient pressure to bring about unconditional surrender and obviate the need for invasion. Based on a detailed investigation of all the facts, and supported by the testimony of the surviving Japanese leaders involved, it is the survey’s opinion that … Japan would have surrendered even if the atomic bombs had not been dropped.”
Paul Tibbets (above right), the man who piloted the Enola Gay on its mission to Japan, said he had no regrets he said in 2002 “
“I wouldn’t hesitate if I had the choice. I’d wipe ’em out. You’re gonna kill innocent people at the same time, but we’ve never fought a damn war anywhere in the world where they didn’t kill innocent people. If the newspapers would just cut out the shit: “You’ve killed so many civilians.” That’s their tough luck for being there.”
The truth is no country, no politician, no individual can justify killing approximately half a million people with two bombs
Hiroshima: 20,000+ soldiers killed 70,000–146,000 civilians killed
Nagasaki: 39,000–80,000 killed
Total: 129,000–246,000+ killed
The public did not see any of the newsreel footage for twenty-five years, and the shocking US military film remained hidden for decades. While the suppression of nuclear truths stretched over decades, Hiroshima sank into “a kind of hole in human history”. The United States engaged in a costly and dangerous nuclear arms race. Thousands of nuclear warheads remain in the world, often under loose control; the United States retains its “first-strike” nuclear policy; and much of the world is partly or largely dependent on nuclear power plants, which pose their own hazards. Our nuclear entrapment continues to this day—you might call it “From Hiroshima to Fukushima.”
It wasn’t necessary Eisenhower said in 1963 “. . . the Japanese were ready to surrender and it wasn’t necessary to hit them with that awful thing.”
AJP Taylor (left) Robert Fisk (Right)
Robert Fisk summed things up in 2010 in a Independent article when he said : –
“On the surface, it’s all very simple. Most of us seem to believe the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki was a war crime. I certainly do. The Japanese were already talking of surrender. British historians, A J P Taylor, quoted a senior US official. “The bomb simply had to be used — so much money had been expended on it. Had it failed, how would we have explained the huge expenditure? Think of the public outcry there would have been . . . The relief to everyone concerned when the bomb was finished and dropped was enormous.”
Its time America faced up to its past and stop hiding behind the bravado of “winning the war” these bombs were evil killing innocent people indiscriminately….it’s time to say sorry !
Cracked Days 