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Shilyn Shekhar | Today marks the 78th year anniversary of the dropping of the Atomic bomb on Hiroshima. This along with the bomb dropped on Nagasaki has resulted in the deaths of more than 2 lakh people and crippled several generations with its effects still visible in the form of birth defects, and significantly higher risk of cancer, and has completely changed how we view nuclear energy. But despite this, a lot of people view the massacre as “necessary” and would go as far as to say that it was justified. “Well, it was necessary for ending WW2” “Japan had planned to do much more horrific things to the US” and “At least the intention was right”. These are some of the narratives pushed on by mainstream “educational” channels and broadcasters. People try to sound smart by saying that it wasn’t completely black and white and that it is way too complex to comprehend. But is that really the case? Let’s take a look back in history and see if all of these arguments were valid.
Was it necessary to drop the bomb in order to bring an end to the war? No.
The argument is made that it was either dropping the bomb or the US having to bring the battle to the Japanese homeland which would result in significantly more American soldiers dying, of course, white lives are much more valuable than the uncivilized Japanese barbarians so it is completely justified. Well, the thing is that Japan was going to surrender anyways and the dropping of the nuclear bombs had very little effect on their decision. On August 9th, before the bomb on Nagasaki was dropped, the supreme council was in the middle of a meeting discussing unconditional surrender and the destruction of these cities held very little significance in their decision because they didn’t even view the atomic bomb as such a terrifying thing. 66 Japanese cities were already razed to the ground from the indiscriminate bombing and firebombing campaigns by the American Air Force. The firebombing of Tokyo alone killed over 100,000 people. Two days after the bombing of Tokyo, retired Foreign Minister Shidehara Kijuro expressed a sentiment that was apparently widely held among Japanese high-ranking officials at the time. Shidehara stated, "the people would gradually get used to being bombed daily. In time their unity and resolve would grow stronger.” In a letter to a friend, he said it was important for citizens to endure the suffering because “even if hundreds of thousands of noncombatants are killed, injured, or starved, even if millions of buildings are destroyed or burned,”. So the Japanese had basically gotten used to their cities being destroyed.
They also firmly believed that they had a chance to defeat the US even after both atomic bombs. The real threat was in the east. On 7th August 1945, the Soviet Union declared war on Japan. The Soviet 16th Army, strong of more than 100,000 men was swiftly moving across Japanese-occupied Manchuria and into the southern half of the Sakhalin Island and then into the Japanese mainland island of Hokkaido, from there it would be game over. All of the elite divisions from Manchuria, Sakhalin, and Hokkaido had been transferred to the south to combat the American threat. So it was actually Stalin who caused Japan to surrender and there was no real point in dropping the nuclear bombs. The worst part is that American leadership and military generals were fully aware of this but they still went on with it. So what was their real motive?
Fascism was never their enemy, it was communism. They viewed communism as the biggest threat to “world peace” as late as 1941 until Pearl Harbour. The real motive of the nukes was to assert dominance over the Soviet Union, it was merely a power play. Unfortunately, 200,000 innocent people had to be taken as collateral.
Another consequence of the nukes was that it turned the public opinion completely against nuclear energy which is most likely the only way we can switch to clean energy and save ourselves from climate fallout. There were 2 major incidents that led to nuclear being cut off from the list of potential sources to fuel the world. First was Hiroshima and Nagasaki, it almost completely diverted nuclear energy research into creating weapons of mass destruction, and hence, people started associating it with just the bomb which makes complete sense. In fact, we stopped researching a much better and more abundant fuel for nuclear fission instead of uranium and plutonium: Thorium, simply because it wasn’t as capable of making bombs. We could’ve done so much with this technology and yet we chose to use it to bring an end to our own species.
The second incident was Chernobyl. From documentaries, and movies to books, this event is portrayed as a terrible extinction-level threat taking gazillions of lives. All of it was blamed on the communist government of course. Although it was a very uncanny occurrence that we had never encountered before, it is way blown out of proportion by Western media. In reality, only 31 people died in the plant and all of these were operators of the plant. Yes, many firemen also died due to radiation poisoning and cancer in the coming months and years.
But it is nowhere as close to what the media narrated and it is certainly nowhere close to another similar incident that took place in India: the Bhopal Gas Tragedy. Over 571,000 people were poisoned and over 25,000 people died from it. Yet, it barely has any coverage in the rest of the world and certainly nowhere as close as Chernobyl.
This is because Chernobyl took place in a communist nation. Communism has always been the enemy, even during WW2 when millions of Jews, slavs, and gypsies were being genocided in Europe, even when Japan was committing unspeakable atrocities to the Chinese and Korean people. In fact, the Nazis had major support from Western capitalists and even the states to a major extent. Now, is killing hundreds of thousands of people justified for a power play? I personally think no.
In conclusion, Hiroshima and Nagasaki are not justifiable in any way, it was not to end the war, it was just a show of power. The bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki are the deadliest acts of terrorism in history.
Written by Shilyn Shekhar, he is a student of class 9th at Delhi Public School, Neelbad, Bhopal. He has an interest in contemporary international relations, climate change, and environment and urban planning.
Keep reading
- Hiroshima Day 2023: Date, History, Significance, Impact, and Facts
- 75 years after Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the fear of nuclear weapons still looms in the world
- Which countries have nuclear weapons?
- Electricity from nuclear fusion, How it is different from existing nuclear energy?
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