Hiroshima and Nagasaki

[TBF]

Seventy years ago, the United States committed one of the most horrific atrocities in military history. Why?
by Jonah Walters ~ 8-9-15

Seventy years ago today, the United States detonated a plutonium implosion-type atomic bomb over the Japanese city of Nagasaki, killing between 40,000 and 80,000 people.

It was only the second time an atomic weapon had been used in warfare. The first time had occurred three days before, when the United States dropped a uranium gun-type atomic bomb on Hiroshima. Between 90,000 and 170,000 people died in that attack.

It was one of the greatest wartime atrocities ever perpetrated. The United States political and military establishment unleashed all the destructive power of the most potent weapons ever created on two civilian populations of little strategic importance. It was a brutal show of force that announced the arrival of the new American superpower and helped establish the stakes of the Cold War.

< snip>

It wasn’t about ending the war. It was about announcing American willingness to use doomsday weapons on civilian populations. In August 1945, President Truman and the American establishment held a gun to the head of the entire world. And that gun remains in place to this day ...

Read here (not that long - a good summary): https://www.jacobinmag.com/2015/08/hiroshima-nagasaki-atomic-bomb-guide-unnecessary/

[vlakitti]

1. An exceptional article, TBF

I read the whole Jacobin piece. I pretty much agreed with all of it.

"...It wasn’t about ending the war. It was about announcing American willingness to use doomsday weapons on civilian populations. In August 1945, President Truman and the American establishment held a gun to the head of the entire world. And that gun remains in place to this day ..."

Can't say it better. Thanks for finding and posting it.

[TBF]

2. In my small high school in the midwest

(in the 1980s no less) we read the book "Hiroshima" (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hiroshima_%28book%29). You can read a book, and then you can discuss all the various topics that go along with it. That was one brave English teacher.