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Showing Original Post only (View all)A-bombs taught U.S. how to justify attacks abroad [View all]
MAY 29, 2016
WASHINGTON On May 27, Barack Obama became the first sitting American president to visit the Hiroshima Peace Memorial, the site of the worlds first atomic bombing. Though highly photogenic, the visit was otherwise one that avoided acknowledging the true historical meaning of the place.
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The use of the term myth is appropriate. Harry Truman, in his 1945 announcement of the bomb, focused on vengeance, and on the new, extraordinary power the United States alone possessed. The military necessity argument was largely created later, in a 1947 article defending the use of the atomic bomb, written by former Secretary of War Henry Stimson, though actually drafted by McGeorge Bundy (later an architect of the Vietnam War) and James Conant (a scientist who helped build the original bomb). Conant described the articles purpose at the beginning of the Cold War as You have to get the past straight before you do much to prepare people for the future.
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The national belief that no moral wrong was committed with the atomic bombs, and thus there was no need for reflection and introspection (the blithe way Nagasaki is treated as a historical afterthought and Nagasaki, too only drives home the point), echoes forward through today. It was 9/11, the new Pearl Harbor, that started a series of immoral acts allegedly servicing, albeit destructively and imperfectly, the moral imperative of saving lives by killing. Americas decisions on war, torture, rendition and indefinite detention are seen by most as the distasteful but necessary actions of fundamentally good people against fundamentally evil ones. Hiroshima set in motion a sweeping, national generalization that if we do it, it is right.
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We may, in fact, think we are practically doing the people of Afghanistan a favor by killing some of them, as we believe we did for tens of thousands of Japanese whose lives might have been lost in a land invasion of their home islands to otherwise end WWII. There is little debate in the war on terror because debate is largely unnecessary; the myth of Hiroshima says an illusion of expediency wipes away any concerns over morality. And with that neatly tucked away in our conscience, all that is left is pondering where to strike next.
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http://www.japantimes.co.jp/opinion/2016/05/29/commentary/japan-commentary/bombs-taught-u-s-justify-attacks-abroad/#.V0wdoR9vFQJ
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America came out of WWII with new 'protectorates' that they still control the Marshall Islands,
Monk06
May 2016
#103
You come in on the tail end of an argument days later. Read the rest of the posts on this.
brush
May 2016
#108
Absolutely. The US is a fascist, racist, warmongering, n'er-do-well great Satan
Albertoo
May 2016
#51
You've stepped in it now you, you America hater you !! Where is your Stalin, Mao, Tojo derp ?
Monk06
May 2016
#98
The Japanese conventially forget that they set in motion events leading up to Hiroshima.
TxGrandpa
May 2016
#6
"Hiroshima set in motion a sweeping, national generalization that if we do it, it is right."
uhnope
May 2016
#5
The carnage from the A bombs didnt matter, but Russia merely declaring war did? Horseshit.
7962
May 2016
#53
I don't think other points of view are ever shameful, nor is a memorial a time to whitewash. But
jtuck004
May 2016
#24
I am remembering ALL of those who made the sacrifice, not just those who suit my
jtuck004
May 2016
#32
What does something else that was stupid, tragic, and useless tell you, that you seem to
jtuck004
May 2016
#30
Americans would be dying to defend America's supposed interests. Japan doesn't have
jtuck004
May 2016
#63
Japan is no longer the source of "cheap products" and hasn't been for some time.
Adrahil
May 2016
#91
If one slows down their reading comprehension is often improved. I said, that. is.
jtuck004
May 2016
#93
Unit 731 in Harbin, Rape of Nanking, Sook Jing Massacre, Parit Sulong, Manila, Singapore
Feeling the Bern
May 2016
#25
Oh, and the biological weapons used in Zhejiang and Jiangxi to poison the farm land as the Japanese
Feeling the Bern
May 2016
#64
Japan Times: Impartiality at its finest! Hey, Japanese times, why not admit your shame with the
Feeling the Bern
May 2016
#65
" when you criticize your country, that means you hate your country." Is how the government, Gompers
jtuck004
May 2016
#88
When Japan apologizes for starting the war and brutalizing the Chinese for 12 years,
Feeling the Bern
May 2016
#100
OR, it's just another red herring in the continual war on justice in order to justify greed.
Festivito
May 2016
#71
To end the war with Japan....I would glad see the entire Japan island go up
beachbumbob
May 2016
#78
This will not help you when they make up the lists for the diplomatic positions in the
jtuck004
May 2016
#87
Evidence suggests that Americans place less value on human life than other people,
cpwm17
May 2016
#82
The piece completely ignores American military interventions prior to World War II.
Act_of_Reparation
May 2016
#110