"as are nuclear power plants."

That's the kind of hysterical nonsense that makes so few people take the anti-nuke crowd seriously.

Nuclear weapons and nuclear power have nothing to do with each other and trying to pretend they do is one of the reasons we are embroiled in the middle east right now instead of having spent the last 30 years upgrading and expanding our nuclear power facilities as most of europe has..

This is the most tragic lost cause in human history!

This is part of a post I just put on the DU article, but I feel it belongs here also.

As a Nuclear Veteran, (Operation Redwing, Bikini Atoll, 1956) I mark every August 6th and 9th with sorrow. I have seen the horror of nuclear weapons at first hand. I am, so far, a survivor, but have watched many die from cancers, have corresponded with many whose children have been born with birth defects, or stillborn.

My heart goes out to the Marshal Islands People whose lives are still devastated by the Castle-Bravo test in 1954 at Bikini.

The Nuclear Dragon never goes away. We can only hope to keep him chained up, far from humanity. DU is just the malevolent breath of the dragon, slowly poisoning the lives of the people it touches, perhaps unto generations.

Gomenasai, Hiroshima and Nagasaki. At the very least it should have ended there. It need not have ever happened.

Gomenasai.

I have often wondered, what if we demonstrated we had the bomb by blowing little man up at sea with the promise we had more if they wanted to continue war.

It was suggested that we warn Japan to evacuate a small island, which we would then destroy. But the War department said, "What if it didn't work? We'd look stupid." (lose face) Better to blow up a city without warning. If it didn't work, no one would know. If it did the world would know, and so would the Russians. Politics over humanity was just as disgusting then as it is now.

Thank you Ibertas.

Indeed, the amount of depleted uanium, (DU) we have used in the Gulf Wars, is equivelant to setting off 40,000 Hiroshima atomic bombs. That figure is not a mis-print.

There is a major difference in the radiation danger, the radiation hazards from the bombs we dropped on Japan disipated many years ago, it is safe to live in Hiroshima. The deadly effects of DU radiation, will be with us for over four billion years. That is not a mis-print either. It is not safe for ANYONE to be in Iraq and never will be.___ Forever! Please also read the article posted right above this one on today's Common Dreams.

[Depleted Uranium Worries Unwarrented.]

The website below explains the hazards of using DU in just one of our fifty states. We have expended as much or more DU in our own country, as we have used in Iraq. It is in the air and is it impossible to clean it up. If we don't stop using it for weapons, DU will over time, perhaps in the next twenty years, kill every living thing on the planet.

Those are not my opinions, the statements are from doctors and scientists, who have studied the issue for many years. There are over a million articles about DU on the web, here is one of the million.

www.protecthawaii.ws/page2.html

The Japanese were already suing for peace through the Russians. This was a deliberate political act of murder orchestrated by the little man from Missouri and his Secretary of State, Byrnes. Not so surprising from a man who called blacks "niggers" on the floor of the Senate (Truman) or a Secretary of State who saw this as a perfect opportunity to keep the Russians out of Japan. As disgusting and disgraceful a piece of real politik as can be found in this country. Time to stop idolizing that president.

Today truly is a day to commemorate.

The warning of Hiroshima remains with us. One nuclear bomb can ruin your whole day.

We forget that the United States tested these weapons on it's own population and that it is seeking to build newer, "more usable," nuclear weapons today. The horror of nuclear war is GRAVELY misunderstood, with many politicians thinking that we can use nuclear weapons "safely" for the world's benefit. Nothing could be further from the truth.

If Hiroshima was a warning than Nagasaki was, and remains, a war crime. And war crimes should be PUNISHED.

Never has the need been greater for us to prosecute all American war criminals and war profiteers. War should not be a financial investment.

Peace to you and yours.

Sarvananda, you are quite correct.

Nuclear weapons are a crime against all humanity, as are nuclear power plants.

Savananda, you are correct. The basic forum for peace was being conducted through a small group in US Intelligence. Messages were being passed through Radio Tokyo amongst other things. Capt. Zacharias was going all over Washington telling them that the Japanese were trying to surrender. He got the brush off and couldn't figure out why, until he read the newspapers.

If Japan surrendered, we couldn't demonstrate our power to the Russians and the rest of the world. Nagasaki was a secondary target. Kokura was saved only by heavy cloud cover.

This tells part of the story. Reprinted by permission
-----------------------------------------
VJ Day plus 60
by
Steve Osborn

15 August, 1945 and the world went wild!
The insanity that had begun in 1939 was over.
Imperial Japan had surrendered, its one wish granted.
Few knew it had been trying to surrender for months,
Asking only to keep its Emperor, but no one would listen,
Except a small group who wondered why.

We had a lesson to teach, to Japan and the world at large.
On 16 July, 1945, in the American desert, Trinity was detonated.
Far more powerful than expected, the super weapon worked!
Horrified, many scientists said, "It must never be used."
The war department said, "Just what we need."
Intelligence said, "They're trying to surrender."

"Bomb an offshore deserted island," the scientists said.
"Maybe it won't go off," the military said, "we'd look foolish."
"Destroying a city without warning is barbaric," said the diplomats.
"They really want to surrender," said intelligence.
"We'll call the city a military target," said Truman,
"The Russians will get a big surprise."

6 August 1945, an elderly gardener looked up from his spade
Admiring the silver plane flying far above.
His shadow remains etched in the concrete wall behind him.
Schoolchildren, housewives, tradesmen
Blown to rags of flesh or vaporized, the lucky ones.
Thousands of others doomed to slow death and disease.

"They keep asking for someone to take their surrender," said intelligence,
"Can't we at least talk to them?"
"They have to be taught a lesson and the world must see our power,"
"Besides, we have to test the second bomb,"said the military.
And so the wheels were set in motion for the second demonstration
Of Hell on earth.

9 August 1945, above the city of Kokura, the Gods of Chance roll the dice.
A hundred thousand or more go about their business,
Unsuspecting of the doom flying above the thick cloud cover.
In Nagasaki, the people enjoyed the sunshine as the cloud cover broke.
"Secondary target is clear," and their world suddenly ended in fire and shock
And radiation sleeting through their bodies.

"Now let them surrender," said the military, "The test is completed."
Two cities vaporized, two hundred thousand dead,
Survivors to suffer, some for days, some for decades,
And the nuclear arms race begun.
"By golly, we sure showed them!"
"We'll let them keep their Emperor."

15 August, 1945 and the world went wild!
The end of the war and of war itself!
There was dancing in the streets and love in the parks,
The blackouts ended in the streets and the homes.
Japan and Germany licked their wounds and hoped to recover.
In Washington, and the Kremlin, midnight oil was burning.

15 August 2005, nations have risen and fallen;
War and genocide again ravage the world.
Treaties made by thoughtful men have been discarded
In the name of profit and greed; nuclear horror again hovers
Over a world exhausted by war, famine and disease.
Only the aging survivors remember the bloody lesson, taught so long ago.

Steve Osborn
15 August 2005
-----------------------------------------
And so it goes, over and over and over.

Please join in the ongoing discussion and view the 42-minute video on Hiroshima, nuclear weapons, nuclear waste and the human costs of militarism and war, free online at
http://www.americasdialogue.org.

Nwfisher, our nuclear power plants are dangerous, the annual tons of deadly waste they each produce, MUST be SAFELY stored forever.

It has been proven time and again, that safely storing the deadly and long lasting nuclear waste is not possible for even sixty years, much less a hundred, a thousand or forever. In additon, our nuclear plants, like our dams and bridges are man made and anything man made eventually fails.

Someday, we will have a nuclear power plant disaster that may wipe out a land area the size of Texas. It will happen, just like a falling bridge, a failure in a nuclear power plant caused by a failed valve or a corroded water line. Something "unforseen" will cause a disaster, and then we will know for certain, that nuclear power was as serious a mistake as was splitting the atom or dropping the bomb on Hiroshima.

Nwfisher, you state the reason we are embroiled in the middle east right now, is because we didn't build more atomic power plants years ago. HAAAAAAAAA HAAAAAA HAAAAAAA.

Wow, that is a good one, Bush can add that excuse to his looooong list, of why we invaded Iraq. Of course his best ones are,___ he heard Osama bin laden a in Pakistan and ___ God made him do it.

Why keep nukes only in the hands of the oligarchy? Haven't they proven to be the most irresponsible of all? Maybe when every person has a WMD there will be peace.

The DOD and people in the Pentagon have led many to believe, DU ammo is rarely used and that it is safe, depleted, uranium. Depleted means, it is not suitable for use as nuclear fuel in a power plant. In solid form, such as the ten pounds of DU in a tank's cannon shell, or the 3.5 pounds in a 30mm round used in a Gatling gun is safe to handle.

DU is NOT "rarely" used, we have used thousands of TONS of it and not just in Iraq. We've used it in kosovo, Afganistan, and in many states in the U.S. etc. It is used in bombs, mortor shells, cannon shells and rifle bullets.__ They are safe until fired.

Another insidious problem is this. When DU shells are used they burn and the resulting smoke is filled with deadly microscopic dust, which gets into the upper atmosphere, just like the smoke from a coal fired power plant. When it rains the dust returns to earth, to kill ANY living thing.

Floating near the top of the blue waters of our oceans, is a tiny plant life named phytoplankton. Those trillions of plants produced 70% of our oxygen in 1975. Those tiny plants are dying off and no one knows why. Now it is estimated the oxygen produced has lessened by ten percent since 1975.

Dust floats on water,___ is DU killing off the phytoplankton? We will learn the answer to that question soon enough. I do believe DU is killing off the inscets and bird life. Their dramatic decreases this year would be the first to give us obvious clues, that something is terribly wrong.

"Savananda, you are correct. The basic forum for peace was being conducted through a small group in US Intelligence. Messages were being passed through Radio Tokyo amongst other things. Capt. Zacharias was going all over Washington telling them that the Japanese were trying to surrender. He got the brush off and couldn't figure out why, until he read the newspapers."

This is NOT correct, some small factions were feeling out peace with the Americans, some with the Russians, but neither could be accepted as they were not from the actual ruling individuals in the Japanese government. The Japanese government did NOT decide to sue for surrender even after the second bomb, a small cabal of officers and diplomats and the Emperor recorded a surrender message against the advice of the military, at least the factions that were in charge. That message was broadcast over radio and only then did the leaders come into line over the surrender. Some areas of Japan did not actually lay down arms and surrender till more than a week after that. The bombs were essential to surrender. Not just to save American lives but to allow the Japanese to have the opportunity to surrender over the objections of the military junta in power at the time.

Professor Howard Zinn commented that the populations of Hiroshima and Nagasaki were in reality just "human guinea pigs" on whom we were experimenting to determine the effects of the Atomic Bomb. The sad part is that the bombs were not needed to end the war. Everyone who cares about this tragedy should read The Decision to Use the Atomic Bomb and the Architecture of an American Myth by Dr. Gar Alperovitz of the University of Maryland. You will weep at his exhaustive and convincing research that demonstrates that the Emperor was ready to surrender his devastated country before the bombs were dropped. All the Japanese needed were reassurances that the Emperor would be kept on, assurances we did not offer because we wanted to test the atomic bomb on human beings! The Japanese were also in horror of the Soviet Union and their entry into the war.

As Fleet Admiral,William D. Leahy, Chief of Staff to Truman wrote:

"The use of this barnarous weapon at Hiroshima and Nagasaki was of no material use in our war against Japan...In being the first to use it, we had adopted an ethical standard common to the barbarions of the Dark Ages. I was not taught to make war in that fashion, and wars cannot be won by destroying women and children."

I have a degree in nuclear engineering. It fascinated me like nothing else, but by the time I'd graduated I knew it was wrong and I've since always worked in other fields.

Remember the talk about 'dirty bombs' awhile back. Basically it was the terror threat of regular explosives wrapped in radioactive material. So the explosion would be conventional, but it would spread radioactive material over an area. Well, I think of using DU weapons as essentially the same thing as using a dirty bomb. The end result is the same, lots of radioactive material scattered around. I definitely feel that using DU weapons in a populated area is immoral. And even worse, its basically needless. They were developed to kill the best of the Soviet tanks in the cold war. Now they are just used regularly to destroy targets that can easily be taken out by other weapons. Thus an immoral and senseless poisoning of populated areas.

As someone with a bachelor's of nuclear engineering, I've got two main problems with commercial nuclear power. One is the waste, which after 50 years we still don't have a decent way to dispose of. Yucca mountain is their best try and its a joke. To grasp the problem, consider a seminar topic I once sat in on. How do you design warning markers such that someone 5000 years from now will know its dangerous to dig here? Or the flip side is this, if the Pyramids were nuclear waste dumps, how could the Egyptians have told us such that we would know know to go in there?

The second problem is this. As an engineer, I think I can design what is theoretically a safe nuclear plant. The problem is when you move it to the real world. Now you've got real workers making mistakes. Now you've got utility execs more worried about profits than safety. In the real world, I don't trust a nuclear plant even though I think I could design a very safe one.

But back to the original point. I like the pledge to move towards a nuclear free world. But how many of the Democratic candidates will take that pledge? None that might get elected. Yet another place where the sick and immoral policies of the Democratic Party differ from my own.

PS ... the Japanese were contacting the Americans asking for peace months before Hiroshima. Through either the Swedish or Swiss embassies. The sticking point was that they wanted their emperor to remain on the throne, and the Americans refused. Then later, MacArthur decided it was best anyways for the emperor to remain. So we ended up basically giving the Japanese the deal they offered.

Sorry, there was a group, in the Emperor's inner circle, who were negotiating. Hiroshima and Nagasaki only shortened the war by a few months.

However, I guess it makes no difference at this late date. Now we have to concentrate on how to keep the madman in the White House and his pet monkey from doing the same thing in Tehran. A difficult task with the Democratic Congress riding shotgun to see that no one gets in his way.

COMarc, I really do like you. Thank you for writing that.

let's all keep one in our basements. then we'll all be even.

Kem, I don't agree with you on the "catastrophic" nature of DU and neither does the UN or the WHO, however, regardless of the degree of bad here, we ABSOLUTELY need to be working to stop any further use of DU weapons and to work on clean up where possible. This is really a crusade worth joining. DU weapons were designed specifically for stopping hordes of armor in an otherwise conventional war. There is no need or place for them unless your enemy has lots and lots of tanks which neither the Iraqis nor the Taliban have.

Personally, I think that this issue is of a higher priority than land mines or other sorts of disarmament.

Hi Goose5 tell ya what, hop over to the other string posted on CD today, [Veterans Rare Cancers, etc.] and read the comments written by Paul M Smith and the web site he listed.

Perhaps you would change your opinion about the 'catastrophic' nature of DU. Those articles give us excellent reasons to doubt the finding of the UN, WHO and why they deny DU in weapony is a such a serious problem. There are thousands of other articles listed onthe web about DU, written by the most esteemed scientists, that are in direct conflict with the UN, WHO and other denyers.

In addition, there is no question that over two thirds of the vets, over 400,000 who served on the ground in the First Gulf War, who are now permanently disabled. Others in the military durng that same time frame, same age group and who did NOT serve in Iraq, have a permanent disability rate of less than three percent. 68% versus 2.8%___ Why?____ Because the 68% group inhaled DU. That Goose, is an epidemic and it is undeniable.

I think this issue should be the most important issue in the entire world. For example, what difference does it make if we have a presidential election in 2008, or are we going to have a war with Iran, if we are killing the entire planet's life with atomic waste? If we don't stop using DU, that is what will occur and it may be too late to reverse the damage done already.

Finally, it is not MY opinions that matter, read all you can about DU and determine which expert you wish to trust on the subject. The denyers have political or monetary reasons, or support those who do.

Goose5, in the archives is an article posted here a week ago, about the loss of Monarch butterflies. There were comments from bloggers from six states, who state that they don't have any insects, and few birds of any type, the problem began this spring.

We can leave our porch lights on all night long and not see a single moth or any other type of insect now. Something is terribly wrong with that picture. No frogs this year and no birds either. Normally we have hundreds of birds where we live in the mountains of the SW and they are gone! It started this spring. Is it DU? I don't know, It isn't just us though, it's reported by many others across the land. If any don't think it's a serious problem,___ they aren't thinking. I don't have an axe to grind; I just say what I can see with my own eyes.

I hope people pay attention. We can learn so much from what we failed to be wise enough about in the past. Nuclear warfare will destroy the world if we don't stop it.

Well___ my two cents.

When Germany surrendered, one of their submarines surfaced and was escorted into a harbor on our east coast. The sub's cargo was nuclear material that was being delivered to Japan, where they were in the process of attempting to make nuclear bombs.

Japan was also building three giant submarines that were aircraft carriers, able to hold three bomber aircraft. One was on the way to bomb the Panama Canal when Japan surrendered. Japan had not succeeded in developong an atomic bomb, but Truman didn't know if had or had not. He did know they'd recieved nuclear material from Germany and was aware they were building the submesable aricraft carriers.

What to do to end the war now, as soon as possible.? That was Truman's decision. The Japenese Army officers were not going to allow their Emperor to surrender. That is a given, even after we used the second atomic bomb, those officers attempted to stop the surrender radio broadcast from their Emperor to the people of Japan and the rest of humanity. They failed and Japan surrendered.

Wish it never happened, the war, the waste,___ the use of atomic power__ for what earthly good?

I will not take a back seat to anybody when it comes paying lip service to the concept of a nuclear-free world. But it seems that Japan has not taken the lessons of Hiroshima to heart. It's sham peace constitution still allows for full protection under the nuclear umbrella, it spends billions on weapons, it is home to nuclear aircraft carrier carrying tactical nuclear weapons and is actively participating in a so called missile defense program. So much for the "peace" celebrations some sixty years later.

Thanks, aymon. I was going to post a speech read by then Congresswoman Barbara Boxer on the floor of the House on Hiroshima Day, 1984, but I know people don't care for long posts. If you wish, go to this link http://www.aracnet.com/~pdxavets/osborn.htm and run down towards the bottom, you will find There Must be No "Day." Which is the one she read. I feel that many of the points are still valid, even though times and "enemies" have changed. The one above it was written right after Chernobyl.

Japan sneak attacked Pearl Harbor killing 3000 American sailors, and destroying our pacific fleet leaving us almost wide open to invasion but for the survival of our carriers.

Japan used millions of woman for sex slave from china and korea for their soldiers. They raped and pillaged across the same asia they claimed they were trying to save from the west.

They certainly had submersible aircraft carriers and intellegence have concerns about them having nuclear technology and materials from Germany. Does anyone believe that Japan would not have used it on us first if they had it. If you say yes, you're a liar.

Truman did what he had to to end the war and to bring my father home. The blame for Heroshima and Nagasoki is at least equal for the Japanese leadership as it is for our culpability in using it.

In the scriptures it is written that we should not celebrate the fall of our enemies.
It doesn't command us to help them up.

But we did help them and most of us forgave them also. The things the Japenese military did to innocents in China, Korea, the Phillipines, Indonesia and to prisoners of war, are unforgiveable. Yet we forgave them. They have NEVER apologized for their crimes.

The people of Japan are just like us in so any ways and much nicer in many ways. I spent two years in Japan and loved the people. Like our government, theirs was so much like others, it was not the people, it was a few evil leaders, just like Gemany, just like it has been on Earth since Cain murdered his brother.

Truman had a choice, he made it, based upon the intelligence available to him. It is a shame, but we didn't start it.

A Note to the American People
by Doctress Neutopia

Sunday, August 07, 2005

Think of what would happen if the strategies of using the atomic bomb on the Japanese were used on the USA. Say a radical group steals two mini-nukes from the US government. They demonstrate that they have them by blowing one up in the Nevada desert. The second one they say they will use on a US city if the American military doesn't start moving its troops out of the Middle East in three days.

After the bomb in the desert is exploded, a note is sent to the media like one that was send to the Japanese after the bombing of Hiroshima.

TO THE JAPANESE PEOPLE:
America asks that you take immediate heed of what we say on this leaflet. We are in possession of the most destructive explosive ever devised by man. A single one of our newly developed atomic bombs is actually the equivalent in explosive power to what 2000 of our giant B-29s can carry on a single mission. This awful fact is one for you to ponder and we solemnly assure you it is grimly accurate. We have just begun to use this weapon against your homeland. If you still have any doubt, make inquiry as to what happened to Hiroshima when just one atomic bomb fell on that city. Before using this bomb to destroy every resource of the military by which they are prolonging this useless war, we ask that you now petition the Emperor to end the war. Our president has outlined for you the thirteen consequences of an honorable surrender. We urge that you accept these consequences and begin the work of building a new, better and peace-loving Japan. You should take steps now to cease military resistance. Otherwise, we shall resolutely employ this bomb and all our other superior weapons to promptly and forcefully end the war.

TO THE AMERICAN PEOPLE:
The People of the Middle East ask that you take immediate heed of what we say on this leaflet. We are in possession of another nuclear suitcase bomb (Special Atomic Demolition Munitions), similar to ones the being develop by the US military with the purpose of using on "foreign" peoples. Like the one that just was exploded in the Nevada desert, it contains a yield of 10 kilotons of explosive power--a Hiroshima-size weapon. It will now go off in one of your cities in the United States in three days if immediate withdrawal of all military and corporate operations in the Middle East does not occur. This awful fact is one for you to ponder and reflect on what happened to the cities in Japan in 1945 after A-bombs exploded. The same fate will happened to you, if you do not halt your war in the Middle East. We strongly urge you to petition your President to end war now. Our committee has outline for you two principles of an honorable withdrawal:

(1) total nuclear disarmament. Since you hold most of the weapons of mass destruction in the world, it is time you became the leader of nuclear disarmament.

(2) Total reconstruction cost paid to the Iraqi people to rebuild Baghdad using ecological city principles, advanced solar power technologies, and Cradle to Cradle industrial design/science principles. For too long science has been used to suppress and kill us rather than to liberate and save us. Now is the time for complete reversal of policy. We urge that you accept these consequences and begin the work of building a new, better and peace-loving America. You should take steps now to cease your global military/corporate domination. Otherwise, we shall resolutely employ this bomb the way you have used it on others.

Of course this note is fiction. But it certainly is not out of the realm of possibility that someday the United States will experience the karma of blowing up the world with WMD.

ezeflyer - "Why keep nukes only in the hands of the oligarchy? Haven't they proven to be the most irresponsible of all? Maybe when every person has a WMD there will be peace."

Your suggestion will be the end of humanity.
The easer it is to obtain WMD - greater is the chance that it will fall in the hands of a mad person who will actually use it.

A mad man today, that goes postal, buy a semi automatic gun and kill a dozen people. To you really want any frustrated school kid to have access to Thermo-Nuclear bomb?

Aymon, Your posting on WERNER HEISENBERG, and Einstein's is most informative. I have been doing a research on the subject myself.
One minor correction though (And I hope you will not view that in bad light since I have no ill intents)
The story of the Manhattan project started with Einstein, which was convinced by Leo Szliard, Edward Teller, and Eugene Wigner (All four are Jewish scientists, who fled the Nazis) to send a letter to Frankin D. Roosevelt, on August 2nd 1939, and not to Truman, who was not the US President at that time.

The irony is that one of the reason why Nazi Germany (Werner Heisenberg and his team) lost the race for the A-bomb to the United States is because they Nazi Germany was racist. They lay off, and eventually expelled all the top Jewish scientists (Including Einstein).

Schools in every country today teach that this coward American act was certainly the most heinous and monstrous of all crimes against humanity, and also unnecessary. The war was over, Japan had no fighting power.

Of course, American schools teach the brainwashing lie that it 'saved lives'. How cynical can a nation be? This would be the same as Germany denying the Holocaust ever existed.

Hiroshima and Nagasaki are two eternal stains on the history of the US.

As usual, some great and informative posts on Common Dreams, and I thank you all for the time and effort spent on presenting your views on the problems of the day and offering some serious solutions for trying to solve them.

If any of you "old-timers" remember the magazine, SATURDAY REVIEW, and it's late, great editor, NORMAN COUSINS, he published an article in 1975 on the decision to drop the A-Bombs on Japan. ( I wish I had saved the article ). To the best my memory serves me, I'll sum up the article.

In May of 45, Germany surrendered, and our ally at the time, the USSR, offered to help defeat Japan. Stalin told Truman he would move some of the Red Army eastward and attack Japan from the west. Truman's advisors, who of course despised the communists and did not want to share Japan with "Uncle Joe", as they did with Germany, convinced "give em' hell" Harry, to drop the bomb on Japan as they were sure the Imperial government of Tojo would surrender quickly. We would occupy Japan and the Red Army would stay in Europe.

Remember one thing about our bombing raids over Japan. They could not stop our planes from destroying the infrastructure, and the Imperial Government knew it. As early as 1944, the Japanese sent envoys to several countries trying to reach an honorable surrender with the U.S. A Brigadier General who worked in the Pentagon during the war said that our people were working, as we came out of the "Depression", and the war industries wanted to keep the "good fight" going for another year, as business was profitable, and our government was not interested in the surrender of Japan at that time. And like then as now,,,who call the shots in Washington? (Halliburton, anyone?)

We defeated the Imperial Navy at Midway, and, with our Army Air Force and Navy pilots, we devasted Japan from the air without ever having to drop not one but two, "weapons of mass destruction", on men, women, children, and babies, with the false propaganda that they were never going to surrender, and a million people would become casualties if we invaded the mainland, so on and so forth. You Common Dreams readers and writters have enough sense to evaluate and analyse information on a wide range of topics. Again, I thank you all for the effort in teaching me and others who want to learn.

A lesson in true morality our modern American leaders are ignoring at our peril. Remember the Biblical admonition about "reaping what you sew"; we are encouraging the development of nukes in unstable countries all over the world, and setting a fatal example by continuing to "improve" our own arsenal. Sooner or later terrorists, or one of these countries, will use nukes against us.

Vets, you are correct about the letter from Albert Einstein to President Roosevelt, who died before it was delivered. The letter was on the president's desk when Truman became President and he never opened any of the letters addressed to Roosevelt.

There are several comments here, both pro and con, about Truman authorizing the use of the atomic bombs. There are two sides to a coin and the flip side of that story is totally different on either side. Truman chose the side of using the bombs. The war ended and the story ended.___ A new one began.

Right now the new story has evolved to where we again ARE using atomic weapons for war. The depleted uranium we are using for weapons is far deadlier to all life than the bombs we dropped on Japan sixty two years ago. The radiation hazards are much worse and far longer lasting.

DU has now spread to every section of the globe, it kills any living thing, even microbes and will be deadly forever. The specks of DU are microscopic, invisible to our eye and inhaling a single speck of it will insure cancer of the lung.

Those are not my opinions. Read this website if you wish to see what DU is doing to the people in just one of our states. This link is only one of thousands available on the web concerning DU. I choose to not ignore the problem, for it is deadly serious and I have grand children, whom I love. It is not fair for our generation, to leave the next generations with nothng but a world of filled with invisible and silent death.

www.protecthawaii.ws/page2.html

Sorry to all the revisionists, but Hiroshima and Nagasaki ultimately saved lives - both American and Japanese.

The military government of Japan had no intention of surrendering. As noted by others, the "peace feelers" were not put out by the Japanese government. The Japanese government was preparing a fight to the death that would (between US and Japanese) result in literally millions of casualties.

Even after the first bomb was dropped, Japan did not immediately sue for peace. It took the second bomb to end the war.

As for the notion that it was "racist" because the bomb wasn't dropped on Berlin, this is simple drivel - it wasn't ready in time to be dropped on Berlin.

Finally, as for the notion that it was cowardly, sorry, but if my side has a weapon that will end the war, and do so with fewer total casualties, using it isn't any more "cowardly" than my using a gun if all you have is a sword. It's smart.

I think Truman's decision to use the bomb on Japan is based on number of reasons. We'll never know what was the weight of each.

1. As aymon said: Racism.
2. Need to test the new weapon on humans.
3. Reduced the number of American and Japanese casualties. (After Okinawa, the number were expected to be very high for a land invasion, as high as 1 millions Americans, and 3 to 5 million Japanies)
4. Fear of Stalin joining the war against Japan, and take part of Japan's occupation (Therefore the need to quickly end the war.)

Vets, I may have confused the issue, the letter Einstien wrote to Roosevelt that Truman never opened, was one where Einstien asked Roosevelt to seriously consider not using the bomb and to end the project.

When they detonated the first bomb at the Trinity site, many of the scientists who had worked so hard on the project, feared the chain reaction may destroy the Milky Way galaxy___ or worse. They didn't know!
They set it off anyway.___ It was science wasn't it? ___ Damn!

KEM PATRICK, Vet, and Aardvark,

THANK YOU FOR YOUR TIMELY AND ACCURATE PORTRAYAL OF REALITY.

Truman was a Democrat. There's no difference between Democrats and Republicans when it comes to war loving and preferring brute strength over diplomacy. The U.S. kills civilians with impunity and gets away with it.

Instead of spending billions inventing new and horrific ways to kill our fellow humans, we should use our tax money for positive results such as health care, education, jobs, etc.

We need to purge this nation of war-loving, war-profiteering leaders. The leading Democratic presidential aspirants seem to want to bomb Iran and Pakistan. We need a 3rd party -- which would actually be a 2nd party.

vets said:

ezeflyer - "Why keep nukes only in the hands of the oligarchy? Haven't they proven to be the most irresponsible of all? Maybe when every person has a WMD there will be peace."

Your suggestion will be the end of humanity.
The easer it is to obtain WMD - greater is the chance that it will fall in the hands of a mad person who will actually use it.

A mad man today, that goes postal, buy a semi automatic gun and kill a dozen people. To you really want any frustrated school kid to have access to Thermo-Nuclear bomb?"

Then the only way to world peace is to begin taking care of each other, starting with the maddest among us, the conservatives in power, who are in most need of help for their psychotic behaviour.

Eveflyer. Maybe Vets has a point there. For example, if every school kid was issued a handgun, it would prevent Colunbine type disasters.____ Maybe not.

I carefully edited all of the spelling errors on the privious blog and it would not edit.

Aardvark: About my "revisionist" history information from the Saturday Review, I stand by my comment.

With our superior air power, our navel blockades, and allied support, the Japanese Imperial Government knew they were losing and could no way defeat us, even without the Red Army advancing toward the mainland. The story we were told so many times to justify dropping the atomic bombs were fabricated on falsehoods. The United states and are British allies cut off the oil supply chain and without oil, nothing moves. The island nation of Japan is poor in natural resources, and it was a matter of time before their stockpiles of supplies were used up.

Again, let me remind you that our firebombs ( napalm,etc. ) killed and maimed more Japanese than our two nukes did, but from all honest and accurate accounts of the devastation inflicted on the citizens of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the pain and future suffering of the survivors of those two cities was worse than from napalm.

Another reason why I believe what the SR article stated, is the fact that as soon as the Nazis were defeated, we turned on our "allies", the Soviets. Contrary to the Hollywood movies about WW2, the Red Army killed way more Germans than we did, which greatly reduced American casualties, but they were commies and we were democratic, and could not take a chance by giving them a stake in East Asia, as we did in Europe to help defeat Hitler. So, before the Reds started moving east, the war in the Pacific was over and we declared victory.

By the way, Aardvark, and anyone else who thinks the nuking of Japan was the best solution, an Army medic asked an infantry First Sergeant in Vietnam why we just don't drop the big one and get it over with, the First Shirt replied that he was in Japan as part of the occupying force at the end of WW2, and saw firsthand the victims, and said he'd rather stay in Vietnam for ten more years using conventional weapons than to get it over quickly with nuclear bombs.

When you see the results, you have second thoughts. At least some people do.

Had Truman had ample time to consider, had he been able to see the results, perhaps he would have re-considered. I'm not sure if being burned to death with napalm is any better than being burned to death with any type of fire. NO weapons are good.

Japan started it. They are guilty also. What did they do with the aircrew members they captured in the first B-25 bombing raid we launched from the carrier the Hornet? They were publicly be-headed.

There are thousands of other atrocities they commited during the war and have never offered a single apology. I will shed my tears at the Arizona shrine in Hawaii thank you. I spent two years in S.E. Asia durng the Vietnam War. We should never have considered atomic weapons then, or now, or ever again. But we will,__ we will.__ Wars ARE hell!

I agree that no weapons are good and being burned to death with napalm or anything else is horrible. Truman listened to his advisors and made the final call.

As far as atrocities commited, the Germans were benevolent compared to the Japanese, and they still have never apologized. The Chinese and Koreans haven't forgotten and are worried about the military buildup by Japan at the urging of the Bush Administration.

Are we any better for our actions in Iraq? In any country, as long as men are willing to kill for the "boss", war will continue. South Vietnam did not attack us but look what we did there.Two wrongs never add up to one right in any arithmetic. War is hell but it gives some people meaning.

You are a good man Aymon. Peace for you also. Let us all hope for peace and perhaps someday we can meet and have a good time having fun and laugh about current affairs instead of talking about wars.