A glimpse of nuclear terror and horror on a day that Japan will never forget

By Fareed Khan

On August 6th and August 9th, 1945 the United States committed the single worst act of terrorism in history when it dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. While it was justified as an act of war, the overwhelming majority of victims were civilians – men, women, children who were not involved in any way in the Japanese military.

This clip from the 1983 Japanese animated movie “Barefoot Gen” about the Hiroshima attack gives a glimpse into the horror and terror that the civilian population of Hiroshima and Nagasaki were subjected to when the U.S. dropped its atomic bombs on Japan.

The US justified its use of atomic weapons by claiming it was the only way to end the war with Japan without sustaining many thousands more American casualties. Many U.S. politicians, scientists and military experts came forward before the nuclear attack to state that the war could have been ended quickly without the use of the atomic bombs. They included:

• Admiral William Leahy, chief military advisor to Presidents Franklin Roosevelt and Harry Truman; 
• General Dwight Eisenhower, Supreme Allied Commander in Europe; 
• General Douglas MacArthur, Supreme Allied Commander in the Pacific; 
• General Curtis LeMay, future head of the U.S. Air Force; 
• Navy Secretary James Forrestal; 
• former President Herbert Hoover; 
• Albert Einstein; and
• Some of the lead scientists of the Manhattan Project.

In a personal visit to President Truman a couple of weeks before the bombing, General Dwight D. Eisenhower urged him not to use the atomic bombs. Eisenhower said (in a 1963 interview in Newsweek):

“It wasn’t necessary to hit them with that awful thing . . . to use the atomic bomb, to kill and terrorize civilians, without even attempting [negotiations], was a double crime.”

The death toll in the days, weeks and months after those nuclear attacks resulted in a conservatively estimated 150,000 dead in Hiroshima and 75,000 dead in Nagasaki. In the decades following the attacks, tens of thousands of the survivors died from various cancers as a result of exposure to radiation.

War is state terrorism on an epic scale but the perpetrators rarely if ever see the inside of a court or are convicted for their crimes. World War 2 was an act of terrorism instigated by Germany but involving most of the nations of the world. The decisions by both the Allies and the Axis powers to target civilians in their military strategy were criminal acts of terrorism, war crimes, crimes against humanity, and violations of the 1899 and 1907 Hague Conventions, and the 1925 Geneva Conventions.  America's decision to target Hiroshima and Nagasaki with their atomic bombs, where the majority of victims were civilians, were acts of terrorism and unspeakable evil.

History is written by the victors in that the most egregious and criminal acts of the victor nation are rarely if ever brought to light or prosecuted.  The US and its World War 2 allies wrote the history of the atomic attacks on Japan to put the US and the Allies in the most positive light. However, anyone who seeks the truth will discover that nations that create empires build those empires on foundations of evil and the bodies of the innocent.

The reality is that US President Harry Truman, who had the final say on going ahead with the attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, is a war criminal and should be remembered as such. And the United States is a terrorist state not just for what they did at Hiroshima and Nagasaki, but also for their actions in the 70+ years following World War 2 where they have (directly and indirectly) attacked any nation that dared to oppose their foreign policy, challenged their economic hegemony, or stood in the way of their global ambitions.

Of all the nations on Earth, the US is the Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde of the world. On the one hand it holds itself up as the shining light of democracy, human rights and freedom, and on the other hand it undermines democracy, violently violates human rights, and destroys the freedom of people in other nations whose governments dare to stand up to the US. For modern examples all you have to do is look at Iraq, Afghanistan, Iran, and Venezuela.

It seems that if you are not an ally or friend of the US, the only way to keep them from interfering in your nation's business or violating your sovereignty is to do like North Korea and build your own nuclear weapons – the very weapons that made the U.S. a terrorist state in the first place.

To date the US is the only nation that has used nuclear weapons against an adversary. As the world marks the 74th anniversary of the 1945 attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, let us hope and pray that no other nation ever becomes the second.

© 2019 Fareed Khan.  All rights reserved.