Hate kills! the consequences of bigotry  (Page 7/11)

Hiroshima and nagasaki

I am not arguing here that the American bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki were genocide or that they were in any way meant by anyone to be genocide. What I am arguing here is that the US is, as of early 2010, the only nation on earth to use nuclear weapons against human beings. Currently (February 2010) Iran is claiming to have fissionable material as is North Korea. It is clear that the use of a nuclear weapon would result in massive loss of human life and the destruction of huge amounts of property as well as a crisis of confidence: anomie would ensue, and the repercussions could be horrendous. What used to be the unthinkable (MAD—mutual assured destruction) during the Cold War has now become a possible scenario because of terrorism and what the world calls “loose nukes”—those nuclear weapons that are not under the strict control of a powerful nation-state. (External Link) (External Link) (External Link) (External Link) How this will play out, no one knows. How this will play out, know one wants to find out.

Although there is still a great deal of controversy surrounding the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, what remains an incontrovertible truth is that the United States of America is the only nation on the face of the earth to ever use nuclear weapons against human beings. The Enola Gay, named after the mother of the pilot, dropped the first of only two nuclear weapons ever used against human beings. It was the first time in human history that such a weapon of mass destruction was used. The United States government argued that it was necessary to use such a weapon in order to end WW II. Many historians agree with that assessment. However, many, including Albert Einstein whose work led to the creation of the A-Bomb, and J. Robert Oppenheimer, who was responsible for building the A-Bomb, did not agree and spent the remainder of their lives after Hiroshima trying to halt nuclear proliferation.

On August 6, 1945, the B-29 Enola Gay, dropped an A-Bomb on Hiroshima, Japan. Three days later, on August 9, 1945, Commander Bock, in his B-29 nicknamed “Bock’s Car” dropped the second A-Bomb on Nagasaki, Japan. The living fell dead in their tracks. Four square miles of the city of Hiroshima were virtually obliterated in a matter of minutes. The eerie shell of one large, domed structure was the only thing to remain standing after the bomb fell on Hiroshima. The center of Hiroshima, which was the target, was populated by non-combatant civilians. Those who survived the blast were horribly burned and maimed. Makeshift hospitals were set up in the outskirts of the city in order to care for the survivors, many of whom died from their burns or from radiation sickness within days or weeks of the bombing. There was no reconstructive surgery and the burn victims were often hideously scarred for life. The medical, emergency, and educational infrastructure was destroyed in the bombing. One photo from after the bombing shows a badly scarred and deformed child getting lessons in the ruins of a school. The last survivor of the bombings, Tsutomu Yamaguchi, died in January 2010 at the age of 93. (External Link) (External Link) (External Link) (External Link) (External Link)&aq=6&oq=last+survivor+of+&ie=UTF-8&rlz=1T4GZEU_enUS330&q=last+survivor+of+hiroshima+and+nagasaki (External Link)