Japan

Our weekly documentary film curated by the editorial team at 21WIRE.

Although it has already been 75 years since World War II ended, when the territorial divisions that now demarcate various parts of the world were drawn through a series of international treaties and laws, politicians in a number of countries continue to exploit territorial issues in order to maintain military tensions, to justify increases in military spending, and as an argument to support nationalist views that only serve to deepen the divide in relations between a number of countries.

2020 marks the 75 anniversary of the nuclear bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The United States still remains the only nation to use atomic weapons on its enemies. But was incinerating untold numbers of Japanese really necessary? The bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki were a political act to begin the Cold War, deliberately carried out by American leaders to assert U.S. hegemony. Watch the video and read more in the Editorial article.

It would seem a logical step, at least from an existential perspective: to ban something so utterly horrendous to life; to forbid its use in any circumstances, whatever rationale employed to justify its use. But the nuclear weapon has its admirers.  There are those who continue to worship its sovereign properties, and those who leave gifts at the shrine of extended deterrence.  Be wary, they say, of the abolitionists.

Philip Roddis Of course the people don’t want war. That is understood … But after all it is the leaders who determine the policy and it is a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy, a fascist dictatorship, a parliament or a communist dictatorship. Voice or no voice, the people …

‘Hiroshima and Nagasaki were acts of premeditated mass murder unleashing a weapon of intrinsic criminality. It was justified by lies that form the bedrock of 21st century U.S. war propaganda‘ – John Pilger Seventy five years ago this week, the sickest dregs of humanity carried out a planned experiment on human flesh. The sociopathic ambitions of the White House and the […]
The post Hiroshima and Nagasaki: Premeditated Murder appeared first on BSNEWS.

On the 50th anniversary of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1995 historians at the Smithsonian tried to present a truthful accounting of that U.S. decision-making but were stopped by right-wing politicians who insist on maintaining comforting myths, recalls Gary G. Kohls.
Gary G. KOHLS
Last week was the 67th anniversary of the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and the whole truth continues to be heavily censored and mythologized, starting with the news of the event that created understandable joy because of the end of that awful war.

When US President Harry S. Truman made the decision to drop the atomic bomb on Hiroshima on August 6, 1945, followed by another on Nagasaki a few days later, he was not acting as an agent untethered from history.  In the wheels of his wearied mind lay the battered Marines who, despite being victorious, had received sanguinary lashings at Iwo Jima and Okinawa.

Seventy-five years ago this week the world crossed an infernal threshold, with the dropping of two atomic bombs on Japan by the United States. Humankind had gained the technological capability for inflicting mass, instantaneous annihilation.

Hiroshima and Nagasaki were acts of premeditated mass murder unleashing a weapon of intrinsic criminality. It was justified by lies that form the bedrock of 21st century U.S. war propaganda, casting a new enemy, and target – China.