In de afgelopen 9 dagen viel de herdenking van de VS atoomaanvallen 72 jaar geleden op de Japanse steden Hiroshima en Nagasaki, respectievelijk op 6 en 9 augustus 1945. Al 72 jaar vindt de discussie plaats over de noodzaak van die aanvallen.
Volgens oorlogsmisdadiger Truman, destijds president van de VS, zou de aanval een half miljoen levens van VS militairen hebben gered. Experts hebben echter berekend dat een aanval op het ‘vaste land’ van Japan, 40.000 militairen het leven hebben gekost, althans als die invasie werkelijk nodig was…….
Precies dat betwijfelden NB een aantal verantwoordelijke VS topmilitairen, die destijds bevel voerden over de strijd tegen Japan. Volgens hen was Japan in feite al verslagen en had men in de onderhandelingen met Japan (over beëindiging van de oorlog) iets toegefelijker moeten zijn. Als de VS een onvoorwaardelijke overgave van Japan niet als noodzaak hadden gezien en daarmee het aanblijven van de Japanse keizer hadden goedgekeurd, was de oorlog zonder verder bloedvergieten beëindigd…… Uiteindelijk ging Truman wel akkoord met deze Japanse voorwaarden, echter na de steden Hiroshima en Nagasaki te hebben vernietigd, waarbij 250.000 mensen omkwamen…….. (dit nog buiten de slachtoffers die later aan de gevolgen van die oorlogsmisdaden zijn overleden >> na een meestal vreselijke lijdensweg….)
Hier een artikel van Information Clearing House gepubliceerd op 11 augustus jl, onder het artikel kan u klikken voor het gehele ICH artikel (waaronder u voor een vertaling kan klikken):
Seventy years ago this week the US vaporized 250,000 civilians, and yet still the bombings are seen as an act of mercy
Here we are, 70 years after the nuclear obliteration of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and I’m wondering if we’ve come even one step closer to a moral reckoning with our status as the world’s only country to use atomic weapons to slaughter human beings. Will an American president ever offer a formal apology? Will our country ever regret the dropping of “Little Boy” and “Fat Man,” those two bombs that burned hotter than the sun? Will it absorb the way they instantly vaporized thousands of victims, incinerated tens of thousands more, and created unimaginably powerful shockwaves and firestorms that ravaged everything for miles beyond ground zero? Will it finally come to grips with the “black rain” that spread radiation and killed even more people — slowly and painfully — leading in the end to a death toll for the two cities conservatively estimated at more than 250,000?
By 1945, most Americans didn’t care that the civilians of Hiroshima and Nagasaki had not committed Japan’s war crimes. American wartime culture had for years drawn on a long history of “yellow peril” racism to paint the Japanese not just as inhuman, but as subhuman. As Truman put it in his diary, it was a country full of “savages” — “ruthless, merciless, and fanatic” people so loyal to the emperor that every man, woman, and child would fight to the bitter end. In these years, magazines routinely depicted Japanese as monkeys, apes, insects, and vermin. Given such a foe, so went the prevailing view, there were no true “civilians” and nothing short of near extermination, or at least a powerful demonstration of America’s willingness to proceed down that path, could ever force their surrender. As Admiral William “Bull” Halsey said in a 1944 press conference, “The only good Jap is a Jap who’s been dead six months.”
On August 9, 1945, President Harry Truman delivered a radio address from the White House. “The world will note,” he said, “that the first atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima, a military base. That was because we wished in this first attack to avoid, insofar as possible, the killing of civilians.” He did not mention that a second atomic bomb had already been dropped on Nagasaki.
Truman understood, of course, that if Hiroshima was a “military base,” then so was Seattle; that the vast majority of its residents were civilians; and that perhaps 100,000 of them had already been killed. Indeed, he knew that Hiroshima was chosen not for its military significance but because it was one of only a handful of Japanese cities that had not already been firebombed and largely obliterated by American air power.
Twenty years ago, the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum planned an ambitious exhibit to mark the 50th anniversary of the end of World War II. At its center was to be an extraordinary artifact — the fuselage of the Enola Gay, the B-29 Superfortress used to drop the atomic bomb on Hiroshima. But the curators and historical consultants wanted something more than yet another triumphal celebration of American military science and technology. Instead, they sought to assemble a thought-provoking portrayal of the bomb’s development, the debates about its use, and its long-term consequences. The museum sought to include some evidence challenging the persistent claim that it was dropped simply to end the war and “save lives.”
For starters, visitors would have learned that some of America’s best-known World War II military commanders opposed using atomic weaponry. In fact, six of the seven five-star generals and admirals of that time believed that there was no reason to use them, that the Japanese were already defeated, knew it, and were likely to surrender before any American invasion could be launched. Several, like Admiral William Leahy and General Dwight Eisenhower, also had moral objections to the weapon. Leahy considered the atomic bombing of Japan “barbarous” and a violation of “every Christian ethic I have ever heard of and all of the known laws of war.”
Truman did not seriously consult with military commanders who had objections to using the bomb. He did, however, ask a panel of military experts to offer an estimate of how many Americans might be killed if the United States launched the two major invasions of the Japanese home islands scheduled for November 1, 1945 and March 1, 1946. Their figure: 40,000 — far below the half-million he would cite after the war. Even this estimate was based on the dubious assumption that Japan could continue to feed, fuel, and arm its troops with the U.S. in almost complete control of the seas and skies.
The Smithsonian also planned to inform its visitors that some key presidential advisers had urged Truman to drop his demand for “unconditional surrender” and allow Japan to keep the emperor on his throne, an alteration in peace terms that might have led to an almost immediate surrender. Truman rejected that advice, only to grant the same concession after the nuclear attacks.
So here we are, 70 years later, and we seem, if anything, farther than ever from a rejection of the idea that launching atomic warfare on Japanese civilian populations was an act of mercy. Perhaps some future American president will finally apologize for our nuclear attacks, but one thing seems certain: no Japanese survivor of the bombs will be alive to hear it.
Hier de link naar het originele artikel, waaronder u ook kan klikken voor een vertaling:
The Indefensible Hiroshima Revisionism That Haunts America To This Day
PS: dat de keizer van Japan aan mocht blijven na de oorlog, is net zo vreemd als het aanblijven van het grootste deel van de repressieve fascistische overheid daar en die in Duitsland, al moet ik zeggen, dat het sparen van een enorme hoeveelheid mensenlevens, dit dubbel en dwars waard zou zijn geweest……. Overigens zou dit niet in de weg hebben gestaan voor vervolging en berechting na WOII van bijvoorbeeld rechters, politie en legeronderdelen (als de SS).
Zie ook:
‘In de VS berichtte men in 1945, dat Hiroshima ‘a military base’ was…….‘
‘Hiroshima, één van de grootste oorlogsmisdaden ooit, 71 jaar later redenen te over voor herdenking!‘
‘De werkelijke reden voor de VS atoomaanvallen op Hiroshima en Nagasaki…. Niet om de oorlog met Japan ten einde te brengen…….‘
‘Atoomaanvallen op Hiroshima en Nagasaki, één van de grootste oorlogsmisdaden uit de menselijke geschiedenis‘
‘Overlevenden atoomaanval op Hiroshima vragen om een verbod op kernwapens‘
‘Hashima en de Japanse ontkenning van wreedheden tijdens WOII‘
en zie voor verdere VS-terreur na WOII:
‘VS vermoordde meer dan 20 miljoen mensen sinds het einde van WOII……..‘
‘VS buitenlandbeleid sinds WOII: een lange lijst van staatsgrepen en oorlogen……….‘
‘List of wars involving the United States‘
‘CIA 70 jaar: 70 jaar moorden, martelen, coups plegen, nazi’s beschermen, media manipulatie enz. enz………‘
‘Noord-Korea verkeerd begrepen: het land wordt bedreigd door de VS, dat alleen deze eeuw al minstens 4 illegale oorlogen begon……..‘
