Hiroshima Day

Japan marks 70th anniversary of Hiroshima atomic bombing

Japan's marking a tragic anniversary today - 70 years ago an atomic bomb was dropped by US forces on Hiroshima. Tens of thousands attended a solemn ceremony in the city's Peace Park near the epicentre of the attack and observed a minute's silence. The bombing of Hiroshima and then of Nagasaki led Japan to surrender in WWII, but it cost tens of thousands of lives.

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Rewriting history....

We learn from this article that America's genocide was all worthwhile because it "saved Japan from invasion by the Soviets"

"You must totally destroy a city and all its inhabitants with atomic weapons to save them from the Russians".

---Mark Sleboda

Did Hiroshima Save Japan From Soviet Occupation?

Stalin had planned to seize a major Japanese island. When Truman refused, Stalin blinked. Why?

Japan’s second-largest island, roughly the size of Maine, Hokkaido was of huge strategic significance. Joseph Stalin’s possession of the island would turn the vast Sea of Okhotsk into a Soviet lake, and ease the projection of Soviet naval power into the Pacific. Stalin had his eyes on a big prize. The detailed Soviet operational plans, published Wednesday by the Wilson Center in the full English translation for the first time, show that all the pieces had been put in place for a swift Soviet occupation.

All that was missing was a final go-ahead from Stalin.All that was missing was a final go-ahead from Stalin. On Aug. 16 the Soviet leader asked U.S. President Harry S. Truman to acquiesce in this “modest wish” or risk offending “Russian public opinion.” Although just months earlier, the U.S. War Department had considered letting the Soviets occupy Hokkaido and even part of Honshu, Japan’s largest island, Hiroshima had clearly changed things for Truman. Possession of a mighty new weapon gave Truman the confidence to set the terms of his relationship with Stalin. On Aug. 18, Truman bluntly turned Uncle Joe down. Stalin procrastinated, weighing the pros and cons. Two days before the planned Aug. 24 landing on Hokkaido, he called off the operation.

Stalin was not known for his measured appetites. Why did he refrain from taking a large chunk of Japanese territory that would have given him a much greater say in the running of postwar Japan and, quite possibly, led to the creation of a Soviet-controlled satellite in Hokkaido, a kind of a “Democratic People’s Republic of Japan,” on North Korea’s model?

The Bomb Didn’t Beat Japan… Stalin Did

Have 70 years of nuclear policy been based on a lie?

The U.S. use of nuclear weapons against Japan during World War II has long been a subject of emotional debate. Initially, few questioned President Truman’s decision to drop two atomic bombs, on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. But, in 1965, historian Gar Alperovitz argued that, although the bombs did force an immediate end to the war, Japan’s leaders had wanted to surrender anyway and likely would have done so before the American invasion planned for November 1. Their use was, therefore, unnecessary. Obviously, if the bombings weren’t necessary to win the war, then bombing Hiroshima and Nagasaki was wrong. In the 48 years since, many others have joined the fray: some echoing Alperovitz and denouncing the bombings, others rejoining hotly that the bombings were moral, necessary, and life-saving.

Both schools of thought, however, assume that the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki with new, more powerful weapons did coerce Japan into surrendering on August 9. They fail to question the utility of the bombing in the first place — to ask, in essence, did it work? The orthodox view is that, yes, of course, it worked. The United States bombed Hiroshima on August 6 and Nagasaki on August 9, when the Japanese finally succumbed to the threat of further nuclear bombardment and surrendered. The support for this narrative runs deep. But there are three major problems with it, and, taken together, they significantly undermine the traditional interpretation of the Japanese surrender.

Setting the record straight

From 2012

Fidel Castro's Message Against Nuclear War: Calling for World Peace

The use of nuclear weapons in a new war would mean the end of humanity. This was candidly foreseen by scientist Albert Einstein who was able to measure their destructive capability to generate millions of degrees of heat, which would vaporize everything within a wide radius of action. This brilliant researcher had promoted the development of this weapon so that it would not become available to the genocidal Nazi regime