A reckoning with nuclear atrocity: The 80th anniversary of Hiroshima and Nagasaki’s devastation

The bombings violated international laws codified in the Hague and Geneva conventions, which prohibit indiscriminate attacks on civilian populations

 

By Fareed Khan 

  

On August 6 and 9, 1945, the United States unleashed an unparalleled act of state-sponsored terrorism by dropping atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, targeting civilian populations in an act of calculated annihilation. Eighty years later, as we commemorate this grim milestone, the moral and historical weight of these actions demands a fiercer reckoning. 

The bombings, which incinerated entire cities and claimed countless lives, were not merely wartime decisions but deliberate acts of mass murder, cloaked in the rhetoric of necessity. The United States’ justification—that these bombs were essential to end World War II—crumbles under scrutiny, revealing a legacy of imperial hubris, unpunished war crimes, and a chilling precedent for global domination.

The 1983 animated film Barefoot Gen offers a harrowing glimpse into the apocalyptic horror inflicted upon Hiroshima’s civilians—men, women, and children vaporized, burned, or condemned to slow deaths by radiation. This was not warfare against a military force but a deliberate targeting of civilians outside the Japanese military, a violation of every moral and legal standard, including the Hague Conventions of 1899 and 1907 and the 1925 Geneva Protocol, which explicitly condemned attacks on civilian populations. The death toll from the two bombings was staggering—an estimated 140,000 in Hiroshima and 74,000 in Nagasaki perished by the end of 1945, with tens of thousands more succumbing to radiation-induced cancers in the decades that followed. These figures, often conservatively reported, mask the individual agonies—families obliterated, survivors scarred physically and psychologically, and entire communities erased.

The US narrative, meticulously crafted by the victors, insists the bombs were a grim necessity to avoid a costly invasion of Japan, potentially saving American lives. This claim is a grotesque distortion, contradicted by a chorus of contemporary voices who argued the war could have ended without such savagery. 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.

Admiral William Leahy declared, “The use of this barbarous weapon at Hiroshima and Nagasaki was of no material assistance in our war against Japan. I was not taught to make war in that fashion, and wars cannot be won by destroying women and children.” General Dwight Eisenhower, in an October 25,1963 New York Times article, was reported to have condemned the bombings as unnecessary.  In his memoirs he stated that he had “grave misgivings” when he was told of plans to use the new weapon. He said that he believed Japan was “already defeated.” General Douglas MacArthur, Supreme Allied Commander in the Pacific, found no military justification for the bombings, noting Japan was already on the brink of surrender.

Even scientists from the Manhattan Project joined Albert Einstein in petitioning against the bombs’ use, warning of their catastrophic humanitarian impact. These dissenters, sidelined by history’s victors, reveal a truth: the bombings were less about ending the war than about flexing American power, particularly to intimidate the Soviet Union which was seen as a possible adversary to the US once the war ended. The decision to annihilate Hiroshima and Nagasaki was in effect a calculated act of terrorism, defined by the targeting of a civilian population to achieve military objectives. President Harry Truman, who authorized the bombings, as well as those who carried out his orders, bear the stain of war criminals, a label they escaped only because history is written by the powerful.

The US and its allies have long evaded accountability for their wartime atrocities, while condemning others for lesser crimes. The bombings violated international laws codified in the Hague and Geneva conventions, which prohibit indiscriminate attacks on civilian populations. Yet, no American leader has ever faced a tribunal for these acts, a stark reminder that justice is selective when empires are the ones in control of the narrative.

The legacy of Hiroshima and Nagasaki extends far beyond 1945, casting a shadow over America’s post-war conduct. The bombings established a template for American imperialism, where moral posturing as a beacon of democracy and human rights masks a ruthless pursuit of global hegemony. In the decades since, the US has orchestrated or supported interventions—overt and covert—that mirror the callousness of 1945. The invasion of Iraq, the bombing of Libya, interventions in Latin America, support for Israel’s genocide in Gaza, have resulted in a conservatively estimated 20 million civilian deaths at the hands of the US since World War Two.  They echo the disregard for human life seen in the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings.

Covert operations in Iran, Venezuela, and countless other nations reveal a pattern of destabilizing governments that resist US dominance, often at the cost of civilian suffering. The US condemns nuclear proliferation while remaining the only nation to have used these weapons, a hypocrisy that fuels global distrust. Iran’s and North Korea’s pursuit of nuclear arms, for instance, is less an act of aggression than a desperate attempt to shield themselves against a nation that has demonstrated its willingness to annihilate entire cities.

Eighty years on, the US continues to cloak its actions in the language of freedom and security, yet its history reveals a Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde duality. It champions human rights while undermining them abroad, as seen in the CIA’s support for coups and dictatorships in Latin America, the Middle East, and beyond.

The bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki were not anomalies but the opening act of an American century built on the bodies of the innocent. The refusal of US leaders to acknowledge this legacy—let alone apologize or make reparations—underscores a nation unwilling to confront its own capacity for evil.

The 80th anniversary of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki nuclear attacks demands more than sombre reflection.  It requires a global reckoning. The US needs to be held accountable, not just for Hiroshima and Nagasaki but for the precedent they set, that might excuses acts of egregious immorality. The remaining few survivors from Hiroshima and Nagasaki, known as "Hibakusha", continue to bear witness, their stories a testament to the enduring human cost of nuclear terror. Their voices, often marginalized, remind us that the bombings were not abstract military decisions but personal catastrophes—children burned alive, parents searching for loved ones in irradiated rubble, futures stolen by cancers that lingered for generations.

As we mark this anniversary, the world faces a nuclear arsenal today vastly more destructive than in 1945, with the US leading the charge in modernizing its stockpile while condemning nations like Iran who want their own nuclear shield. The irony is grotesque. The only nation to have committed nuclear atrocities dictates the terms of global non-proliferation.

Let this 80th anniversary be a clarion call—not just to remember the victims of Hiroshima and Nagasaki but to dismantle the systems of power that enable such horrors. No nation should hold the power to annihilate entire cities, and no empire should escape judgment for its terrorist crimes. The hope that no other nation joins the US as a perpetrator of nuclear warfare remains fragile, tethered to a world where justice remains elusive and the victors still write the story.

© 2025 The View From Here. © 2025 Fareed Khan. All Rights Reserved.

On 75th anniversary of A-bomb attacks on Japan we must accept that racism played role in US choice of Japan over Germany as first target

By Fareed Khan 

August 6th and 9th marks the 75th anniversary of the United States committing the single worst act of racist state terrorism in history.  These are the dates in 1945 when the US dropped atomic bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.  The US justified the use of atomic weapons as the quickest way to end the war with Japan without incurring thousands of American casualties to conquer the Japanese homeland.  However, this was not the view held by US military leaders, and President Harry Truman’s military advisors were ultimately overruled by Truman’s political advisors about using the A-bomb against Japan.The two bombings collectively killed 225,000 people immediately and in the days and weeks that followed, as well as an additional 200,000 more people by 1950.  These numbers don’t include the tens of thousands who lived with lifelong physical injuries and cancers resulting from radiation exposure that eventually took their lives in subsequent decades.

The decision to target Japan rather than Germany was made on September 18, 1944, a time when the war in Europe was still raging.  No one at the time could predict that by the spring of 1945 Nazi Germany would surrender and the war in Europe would be over.  Therefore it begs the question why only Japanese targets were selected rather than targets in Germany for the first use of these new weapons. 

 

The overwhelming majority of citizens of Hiroshima and Nagasaki were women, children and the elderly, not involved in any way in the Japanese military.  This alone should raise questions about the rationale and justification put forth by advocates of using America’s ultimate weapon against targets that were essentially defenceless and without any significant military value.

 

The answer lies in the dehumanization of the Japanese as part of US war propaganda, and the virulent racism targeting all things Japanese.  By the time the summer of 1945 arrived the US government had spent three and a half years putting out racist anti-Japanese propaganda to instill a sense of nationalism in all Americans to support the war effort.  The fact that this propaganda portrayed the Japanese as a sub-human society without a sense of humanity resulted in Japanese Americans (who had no real ties to Japan) being stripped of their property and possessions and imprisoned in American concentration camps after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour.

Despite this racist propaganda, many U.S. politicians, scientists and military experts came forward in the months and weeks before the bombs were dropped to state that the war could be ended quickly without the use of the atomic bombs.  Admiral William Leahy, President Truman’s Chief of Staff, wrote in his 1950 memoir I Was There that, “The use of this barbarous weapon at Hiroshima and Nagasaki was of no material assistance in our war against Japan. The Japanese were already defeated and ready to surrender . . . in being the first to use it, we . . . adopted an ethical standard common to the barbarians of the Dark Ages. I was not taught to make war in that fashion, and wars cannot be won by destroying women and children.”

 

Others who counselled President Truman against dropping the atomic weapons on Japan included: 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 visit to President Truman a couple of weeks before the bombing, General Dwight D. Eisenhower urged him not to use the atomic bombs given that the Japanese had indicated they were willing to surrender. In a 1963 interview in Newsweek Eisenhower said,“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.” 

 

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. In this instance it was American state terrorism fuelled by a virulent racist hatred towards the enemy, that resulted in the US imprisoning tens of thousands of its own citizens for the mere fact that they shared the Japanese ancestry of their enemy, and justifying the nuclear incineration of two Japanese cities which ultimately resulted in more than 400,000 civilian deaths by weapons of mass destruction. 

World War 2 was an act of terrorism initiated by Nazi 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 Protocol.  America's decision to target Hiroshima and Nagasaki with their atomic bombs, where the majority of victims were civilians, were not only violations of these treaties but were in effect acts of state terrorism.

 

History is written by the victors in that the most egregious and criminal acts of the victor nations 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 in the most positive light. However, anyone who seeks the truth will discover that nations that create empires build those empires on the bodies of the innocent, and on foundations infused with lies to hide their war crimes. 

 

The reality is that US President Harry Truman, who had the final say on going ahead with the attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, was a racist war criminal and should be remembered as such.  He was the leader of a terrorist state which chose to target its non-white enemy (Japan) rather than its white enemy (Nazi Germany) when the decision was being made on where to use America’s new weapon.  He chose targets that were civilian, primarily populated with women and children, and he pushed forward with the attacks despite the advice of his most senior military advisors, and many prominent Americans and senior statesmen. 

 

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 beacon 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 in support of its own political or economic interests, or if foreign governments dare to challenge 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 US a terrorist state in the first place. 

 

The US is the only nation in the world that has used nuclear weapons against an adversary.  It did so because its president was a virulent racist, who accepted America’s racist propaganda which had dehumanized all Japanese into caricatures that were sub-human ogres without a shred of civility or humanity.  This made it easier to move forward with the plan to bomb Hiroshima and Nagasaki despite the better judgment of his military leaders, who believed that the surrender of Japan could be achieved without targeting women and children.  The fact that Truman went ahead with the plan says much about him as a person, and about the racist mindset of the political advisors that surrounded him who encouraged him to do so.

 

As the world marks the 75th anniversary of the nuclear attacks by the US on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, let us never forget the racist mass murder committed on these two days.  Ultimately it was hate that won day when thousands of Japanese civilians in those two cities were incinerated in the 6000°C fireball created when the bombs exploded.  Let us hope that no nation that possesses nuclear weapons ever gives in to such hate again, and for the sake of humanity let us hope we live to see the day when nuclear weapons are eliminated from the Earth.

 

© 2020 The View From Here.  © 2020 Fareed Khan.  All Rights Reserved.

 

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.

69 years and Counting: Looking Back At Hiroshima and Nagasaki

By Fareed Khan

 

August 6th and August 9th marked the 69th anniversary of the dropping of atomic bombs by the United States on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.  The days came and went this year with little political or public commentary on two of the most horrific events in the history of war.

 

 

Conservative estimates of the death toll in the days and weeks after the bombing are approximately 150,000 dead in Hiroshima and 75,000 dead in Nagasaki.  However, in the years that followed survivors of the bombings began to die as a result of various cancers, bomb-related diseases and injuries resulting from radiation exposure and physical trauma. It is estimated that by 1950, 200,000 more people from the two cities had died.  And of those survivors who did not die, many became victims of various types of cancers as they aged.

While the U.S. 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 experts, politicians,and scientists came forward before and after the bombings to state that the war could have been ended quickly without the use of the atomic bombs and that Japan was on the cusp of surrendering at the time the decision was made to use the weapons.

Among the critics of the decision were: 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; as well as a number of the lead scientists of the Manhattan Project.

DWIGHT EISENHOWER

Supreme Allied Commander in Europe

"Japan was already defeated and dropping the bomb was completely unnecessary . . . I thought that our country should avoid shocking world opinion by the use of a weapon whose employment was, I thought, no longer mandatory as a measure to save American lives. It was my belief that Japan was, at that very moment, seeking some way to surrender with a minimum loss of 'face'.”

ADMIRAL WILLIAM D. LEAHY

Chief of Staff to Presidents Franklin Roosevelt and Harry Truman

"It is my opinion that the use of this barbarous weapon at Hiroshima and Nagasaki was of no material assistance in our war against Japan. The Japanese were already defeated and ready to surrender because of the effective sea blockade and the successful bombing with conventional weapons."

HERBERT HOOVER

Former President of the United States

On May 28, 1945, Hoover visited President Truman and suggested a way to end the Pacific war quickly: "I am convinced that if you, as President, will make a shortwave broadcast to the people of Japan - tell them they can have their Emperor if they surrender, that it will not mean unconditional surrender except for the militarists - you'll get a peace in Japan - you'll have both wars over."

GENERAL DOUGLAS MacARTHUR

Supreme Allied Commander in the Pacific

MacArthur biographer William Manchester has described MacArthur's reaction to the issuance by the Allies of the Potsdam Proclamation to Japan: "...the Potsdam declaration in July, demand[ed] that Japan surrender unconditionally or face 'prompt and utter destruction.' MacArthur was appalled. He knew that the Japanese would never renounce their emperor, and that without him an orderly transition to peace would be impossible . . . Ironically, when the surrender did come, it was conditional, and the condition was a continuation of the imperial reign. Had the General's advice been followed, the resort to atomic weapons at Hiroshima and Nagasaki might have been unnecessary."

Today, almost seven decades later, it's difficult to imagine why a country would justify unleashing the horror of such weapons on anyone.  And while no nation other than the United States has used nuclear weapons against an adversary, the nine nuclear nations of the world combined sit on a stockpile of nuclear weapons many times more powerful than those dropped on Japan.  If even a fraction of these weapons were ever used they would render the Earth uninhabitable to almost all life on this planet. In total the nuclear nations of the world possess 17,300 nuclear warheads among them with Russia (8,500 warheads) and the United States (7,700 warheads) accounting for 92% of that number.

As this anniversary passes and the 70th anniversary of the bombings approaches next year let us hope that the campaign initiated in 2007 to declare nuclear weapons illegal under international law gains momentum and reaches a point where that goal can be achieved.

“Nuclear abolition is the democratic wish of the world's people, and has been our goal almost since the dawn of the atomic age. Together, we have the power to decide whether the nuclear era ends in a bang or worldwide celebration.”

~ Archbishop Desmond Tutu 

Related:
* Hiroshima and Nagasaki, 69 Years Later

* August 6th – A Date Which Will (Not) Live in Infamy

* The Living Myths About Nuclear Murder: Remembering Hiroshima and Nagasaki

* CIA: No Evidence of Iranian Nuclear Weapons Program

* Israeli Asher Karni & Nuclear Terrorism Network

* The Unspoken Alliance: New Book Documents Arms, Nuclear and Diplomatic Ties
  Between Israel and Apartheid South Africa

* Secrets About Suspected Israeli Theft of U.S. Weapons-Grade Nuclear Material 
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* Let’s Be Honest About Israel’s Nukes

* China, India, Pakistan boost nuclear arsenals

* Is The U.S. Planning A Horrific Global Nuclear War?

* The Dangers of a Middle East Nuclear War

* Nuclear Hero's 'Crime' Was Making Us Safer

NOTE: All links in this article were current and working at the time of posting.  If any links no longer work please post a note and the problem will be corrected where possible.

© Fareed Khan.  All Rights Reserved.