From the “Damn, I’m so insensitive” Dept.

I just remembered.

August 6th is the anniversary (not joyous though) of the bombing of Hiroshima [1945]. Three days from now the bombing of Nagasaki. Over 150,000 people died inferno and the ensuing months (and years) after the event. Karen has a good write up about this.

Here are some more “devestating facts” taken from a Toronto Star Article, written by Kevin Black, entitled Lessons from Hiroshima.

Here is an excerpt:

The ongoing declassification of U.S. government documents and officials’ diaries have fairly recently revealed evidence that the history lessons that we were taught after the end of the Pacific War were false. To wit:

• The Joint Chiefs of Staff and every other high military official, as well as all Truman’s key advisers, save one, were against the use of the A-bombs against the Japanese. Many were particularly concerned about the impact to America’s moral stature for using bombs that they considered barbaric, especially upon a nation that they knew was beaten. After all, the U.S. military had already gained complete domination of Japanese airspace and waterways. They were simply waiting for the terms of surrender to be formulated between the U.S. and Japanese governments.
• Truman repeatedly delayed acceptance of the Japanese government’s conditional surrender attempts until after both types of A-bomb had been used.
• Truman’s physical target for the A-bombs were the Japanese, but the political target was his ally, but ideological opposite, Joseph Stalin.
• Hiroshima’s city centre was targeted because its high population and building density would maximally display to the Soviets the killing and destructive power of America’s new weapon.
• The story of a million American lives (and many more Japanese lives) saved by the A-bombs was a complete fabrication designed to eliminate public criticism of the president’s decision.

Thus, the twin destructive forces of “Fat Man” and “Little Boy” were of political, but not military, utility. In other words, the nuclear holocausts were used for the purpose of “atomic diplomacy” with the Soviets rather than to bring a swift end to the war.

End excerpt.

Absolutely awful.

If people had known the truth, I wonder what would have happened?

Back in grade 10, I was recommended a book by the my English teacher, Mr. Hugh Leznoff. It was called, simply enough, Hiroshima. It was written in 1945, shortly after the bomb was dropped, by John Hershey, a Pullitzer-Prize winning journalist.

It’s not fiction. The stories and people, as I understand it, are REAL. The survivors detailed in this book include a housewife, her son, a German priest, two doctors, and a young working woman. A short epilogue, written 40 years later, recounts what happened to each of the people (I’m struggling not to say characters).

If you’re interested, you should read the book.

In Grade-13 Writers’ Craft, my class and I went to an art exhibit at the Harbourfront Centre commemorating the 50th anniversary of the event.

I’m not Japanese. I don’t pretend to understand anything about this.

-T