Note: I moved this post to the top of the page for Saturday, August 6 and have added some updates. -- Agi T.
Today marks the 60th anniversary of the nuclear attack on Hiroshima, Japan. The initial blast and the following months of radiation killed about 140,000 people, 95% of which were women and children [LA Times]. Three days later another atomic bomb was dropped on the city of Nagasaki, Japan. The U.S. government has always portrayed this action as absolutely necessary and that it was responsible for ending WWII. However, there is much controversy surrounding the events of August 6, 1945 and the days that followed.
American journalists were not given access to Hiroshima or Nagasaki after the nuclear blasts. The only reporter to actually witness the horrors first hand was Australian journalist William Burchett:
Burchett's article, headlined THE ATOMIC PLAGUE, was published on September 5, 1945, in the London Daily Express. The story caused a worldwide sensation. Burchett's candid reaction to the horror shocked readers. "In this first testing ground of the atomic bomb I have seen the most terrible and frightening desolation in four years of war. It makes a blitzed Pacific island seem like an Eden. The damage is far greater than photographs can show."
U.S. authorities quickly silenced this messenger of truth calling him an agent of Japanese propaganda. They also denied the existence of radiation sickness. The War Department hired their own reporter, William L. "Atomic Bill" Lawrence, who wrote articles for the New York Times in which he discounted the harmful effects of the bomb. He went on to win a Pulitizer for his marvelous reporting propaganda work:
"Mine has been the honor, unique in the history of journalism, of preparing the War Department's official press release for worldwide distribution," boasted Laurence in his memoirs, Dawn Over Zero. "No greater honor could have come to any newspaperman, or anyone else for that matter."
"Atomic Bill" Laurence revered atomic weapons. He had been crusading for an American nuclear program in articles as far back as 1929. His dual status as government agent and reporter earned him an unprecedented level of access to American military officials-he even flew in the squadron of planes that dropped the atomic bomb on Nagasaki. His reports on the atomic bomb and its use had a hagiographic tone, laced with descriptions that conveyed almost religious awe.
The U.S. government not only engaged in deceptive propaganda but also prevented Japanese footage of the nuclear aftermath from ever seeing the light of day:
Within days of the second atomic attack, officials at the Tokyo-based newsreel company Nippon Eigasha discussed shooting film in the two stricken cities. In early September, just after the Japanese surrender, and as the American occupation began, director Sueo Ito set off for Nagasaki. There his crew filmed the utter destruction near ground zero and scenes in hospitals of the badly burned and those suffering from the lingering effects of radiation . . . Then, on October 24, 1945, a Japanese cameraman in Nagasaki was ordered to stop shooting by an American military policeman. His film, and then the rest of the 26,000 feet of Nippon Eisasha footage, was confiscated by the U.S. General Headquarters (GHQ). An order soon arrived banning all further filming.
This lost footage will be aired tonight in a documentary titled "Original Child Bomb" on the Sundance Channel.
We have been taught since elementary school that dropping the bomb was absolutely necessary in order to save American lives, defeat Japan and end the war quickly. Killing lives to save lives? I think it's fair to question this logic in light of recent revelations. I do believe that the use of the bomb was morally wrong, however, I wasn't alive in 1945 and I don't fully understand all the circumstances and the reasoning that led to that decision. Moreover, it is perfectly understandable that our government would want to conceal the harmful effects of the atomic bomb from the American public. Keeping the public uninformed continues to help justify the use of the bomb.
The lesson we have learned from this horrible moment in history is that nuclear weapons must never be used again. We must work just as hard to prevent terrorists and rouge nations from acquiring nuclear weapons as we should forbidding our own government from attacking nations with nuclear weapons. That means you Mr. Cheney.
MORE INFO: [The Hiroshima Cover Up] [The Myths of Hiroshima] [Democracy Now: U.S. Hid Footage of Nagasaki Damage for Decades] [Why Remember Hiroshima?] [The Heretik: The Birds]
Other Agitprop Nuclear Posts: [Nuclear Ambition] [Cheney's Plan to Nuke Iran]
Technorati: Hiroshima
