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Hiroshima and Me
As another August 6th approaches, let me tell you a little story about Hiroshima and me:
As a young man, I was probably not completely atypical in having the Bomb (the 1950s was a great time for capitalizing what was important) on my brain, and not just while I was ducking under my school desk as sirens howled their nuclear warnings outside. Like many people my age, I dreamed about the bomb, too. I could, in those nightmares, feel its searing heat, watch a mushroom cloud rise on some distant horizon, or find myself in some devastated landscape I had never come close to experiencing (except perhaps in sci-fi novels).
Of course, my dreams were nothing compared to those of America's top strategists who, in secret National Security Council documents of the early 1950s, descended into the charnel house of future history, imagining life on this planet as an eternal potential holocaust. They wrote in those documents of the possibility that 100 atomic bombs, landing on targets in the United States, might kill or injure 22 million Americans and of an American "blow" that might result in the "complete destruction" of the Soviet Union.
And they were pikers compared to the top military brass who, in 1960, found themselves arguing over the country's first Single Integrated Operational Plan for nuclear strategy. In it, a scenario was laid out for delivering more than 3,200 nuclear weapons to 1,060 targets in the Communist world, including at least 130 cities which would, if all went well, cease to exist. Official, if classified, estimates of possible casualties from such an attack -- and by then, nuclear weaponry and its delivery systems had grown far more powerful -- ran to 285 million dead and 40 million injured (and this probably underestimated radiation effects).
From the National Security Council and the Pentagon to a teenager's nightmares, an American obsession with global annihilation undoubtedly peaked when President Kennedy came on the air on October 22, 1962, to tell us that Soviet missile sites were just then being prepared on the island of Cuba with "a nuclear strike capability against the Western Hemisphere." Listening to his address, Americans everywhere imagined a nuclear confrontation that could leave parts of the country in ruins. Nuclear fears, however, began to fade (even as the superpower arsenals grew) when the Cuban Missile Crisis was defused and, along with atomic tests, went underground after the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty was signed in 1963. Then, of course, the Vietnam War seemed to swallow the world.
In 1979, after the reactor core of a nuclear plant at Three Mile Island in Pennsylvania partially melted down, the bomb returned to me in an odd way. Then a book editor, I went out to lunch with a potential author who had been on one of the investigatory panels created by the President's Commission on the Accident at Three Mile Island which Jimmy Carter had set up. She told me of a Japanese journalist who testified before her panel. He had interviewed the mothers of young children and pregnant women belatedly evacuated from the potential danger zone to an iceless ice rink in the state capital, Harrisburg. None of them had heard of Hiroshima or Nagasaki.
This so startled me that I decided to search for a book to publish on what had happened on those August days in 1945 when two Japanese cities were wiped out by a new weapon and the nuclear age began. With the help of a historian and friend, I finally came across a Japanese book of images drawn by Hiroshima survivors, few of them artists, sometimes with school materials borrowed from their own grandchildren. Each drawing caught a moment experienced on that terrible day when Hiroshima was wiped out and was accompanied by a little personal description. Many of images were in pastels, or even crayon, and looked invitingly sprightly until you read the horrific accounts that accompanied them. The book was called Unforgettable Fire and it played a small role in the massive anti-nuclear movement that arose in those years. Unfortunately -- and this tells us something -- it's now long out of print.
A couple of years later, I was invited by Japanese publishers to visit their country. Only on arriving did I discover that the man who had shepherded Unforgettable Fire to publication -- and who was surprised to discover that an American editor wanted to publish it in translation -- planned to take me to Hiroshima.
As a former atomic dreamer, who now knew a good deal about the history of the dropping of the bomb, and was, above all, the editor of possibly the only mainstream visual record in the U.S. of what had happened under that mushroom cloud, I was touched by the gesture, but somewhat bored by the idea. After all, Japan was then dazzling. It was the era of "Japan as Number One" mania and there was so much to see in a few brief days -- and I, of course, knew pretty much what there was to be known about the experience of the first A-bombing. That's just how plain dumb I was.
The trip to the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum with its caramelized children's lunchbox and permanently imprinted human shadows was, to say the least, unspeakably horrifying. In fact, it left me literally speechless, so much so that, although I returned to New York babbling about Japan, I found, for a long time, I couldn't talk about what I had seen in Hiroshima.
And that, mind you, was only the museum, which means it was next to nothing compared to what actually happened that long ago day. When American strategists in the 1950s confidently began, in Herman Kahn's famous phrase, "thinking the unthinkable," they, too, undoubtedly had no idea what they were incapable of imagining. By and large, they still don't. As TomDispatch regular Frida Berrigan points out, the weapons that devastated Hiroshima and Nagasaki are the equivalent of BBs compared to what's now in the major nuclear arsenals on this planet. So sweet dreams this Hiroshima Day.
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17 Comments so far
Show AllBeing also old, I can remember "Drop Drills" where when the teacher unexpectedly shouted out "Drop!" we children would hit the floor, under our desks, covering the back of our neck (Louis Black in one of his specials is hilarious about this memory).
People my age grew up with the possibility of nuclear war lurking behind the curtain of our sense of the future. A lot of us had youthful fatalism about it "Well, if it happens, then all problems are solved."
It has surprised me that not one of those things has gone off since August 1945 (4 months after my birthday). Those two bombs took things to a whole new level and scared most people, even those in power, about the possibility of global annihilation (although there was a fair amount of pressure from senior military to nuke North Vietnam).
Then the cold war ended and everyone breathed a sigh of relief. Until recently, when North Korea and Iran started acting up, nobody feared a Mutual Assured Destuction (MAD -- most apt acronym ever) exchange. That seemed behind us.
But it's not behind us. Someone is bound to set one of those things off someday, probably soon, especially since so many countries seem to see going nuclear as a way to jump start into superpower status. I've heard reports (from Salmon Rushdie, on Bill Maher's show) asserting that middle east Islamic radicals are flying flags with nuclear mushroom clouds on them. With their belief that dying is a holy good thing, this is worrisome. North Korea flaunts it's fledgling weapons and rockets; it doesn't take latest-generation state-of-the-art stuff to cause a big mass casualty boom.
What to do? Every time I post something about how I see one of the problems we're facing, we come to that question. I wish I knew the answer, or had a good suggestion. Attacking Islamic people with bombs doesn't seem like a very good idea. Shock and awe, that's the theory; but the "awe" part of the exchange never seems to happen.
I am certain that hitting the deck under a chair and covering the backs of our necks will not save us.
Rushdie is a great author. But, unless he can prove what he says is true, and also clarify it's relevance, ie, is it some deranged but flying the flag, or is it people with influence, and state his sources, what he said here needs to be taken with a very large pinch of salt.
Rushdie has an intense animus against Islam, justifiably, given that Iran's mullahs were once sponsoring his assassination.
I'm not sure, obviously, but I believe that Rushdie got his information from Christopher Hitchens, the right wing pundit who is a friend of Rushdie.
Hitchens claimed on the show that "I was at a Hezbollah rally in Beirut last month. The slogan, the flag, the symbol, the logo, is a nuclear mushroom cloud. That's their party symbol."
Hitchens is the same person who has pretty much advocated bombing a variety of (Islamic) nations. He has no problem bombing civilians, women and children. He wanted to, and wants to bomb Iran. He wants to bomb civilians, women and children. In the name of democracy, civil liberties, human rights.
Similarly, the writer Martin Amis.
Anything that Rushdie, Hitchens, Amis, says about Islam, Muslims and Islamic countries should be taken with a very large dose of salt.
Thank you for that. Hitchens I have disregarded for a long time, but I will definitely increase my salt intake for Rushdie on that topic -- more salt in this instance might lower my blood pressure.
There probably are fewer believers in Islam out to suicide-bomb us than the Powers That Be would have us believe, but there are some and woe be to wherever if one of them does figure out how to strap a nuke on under a bulky jacket.
Sioux Rose
PARANOID: I think the greater danger lies here at home. What country has most WMD and has already shown a twisted will to use them? What country has likely set up its own "Pearl Harbor" style trigger-events? Granted, with all the murder, mayhem, and chaos delivered unto the Arab/Muslim world recently, certainly the plausibility of a return on THAT investment must be brewing in the minds of a few. And with Pakistan having nuclear technology, it's hard to believe some is not passing through the black market these days. IF America becomes the beneficiary of such an attack, there are strong arguments to suggest it did its utmost through corrupt leadership to court that fate.
As the Buddhists teach, live with wisdom and honor each moment, for we are creatures of an impermanent status and our time can be UP at any instant, like the guy who goes out for his daily morning jog not knowing that is the day he will be hit by the truck that veers slightly off course to avoid a child on a stray bicycle.
Oh, I agree that there are deranged Muslim mad men out there who would gleefully use a nuclear bomb on civilians, on women and children without discrimination.
If that is what Rushdie is saying, I don't disagree. But, if that is what Rushdie is saying, that there are deranged mad men out there, it isn't terribly insightful or meaningful. There will always be deranged mad men. Especially if the target of their madness, the US continues to invade (their) countries, and bombs women and children to bloody bits.
Deranged mad men do not get their hands on nuclear weapons easily. Countries with existing nuclear weapons will not give them to deranged mad men. For no other reason than self protection. If a country with nuclear weapons gives some to some mad men, there is always a chance that the mad men would use those weapons against it.
Oops. Hit the dang Post Comment button twice.
Paranoid Pessimist
Attacking anyone with anything is not a good idea as you know. "Shock and Awe" could only be thought up by cowards that never saw a shot fired. You know how brave folks are that have nothing at risk by their decisions, that don't have others lives directly in their hands when they make decisions.
I don't believe there is an answer. I know that Russia, N. Korea, Pakistan, India, China, Israel nor the US is going to disarm unilaterally. Nukes are here to stay and no one has a good idea that I've heard to get rid of them.
We can't even get rid of clusterbombs or Willie Pete for God's sake.
I remember the drills too, but we know now they were useless and more for propoganda purposes than anything else.
I am afraid you could be right about "middle east Islamic radicals" or someone sneaking something in here and blaming them. Unstability rules right now thanks to the fool's errand's Bush/Cheney sent our kids on. And Obama continues.
I hope someone figures something out.
"Nukes are here to stay and no one has a good idea that I've heard to get rid of them"
The problem is in your definition of "good idea". It likely means "something that can be implemented by my favorite elite at the press of a button", similar to the nuke idea itself, "dear leader puts down all external threats by fingering the red button". Obviously this approach puts everyone at the mercy of one, a scenario that inflames the worst in human nature. It's the ultimate racket, the maintenance of a throne.
But there is an answer. Mass enlightenment/responsibility is the ultimate answer to all problems because it enlists the good side of human nature to defend itself from the bad side of human nature. This has been understood for many millenia, pehaps thousands of millenia. Don't wait for "dear leader" to confirm it. Confirm it yourself.
"Until recently, when North Korea and Iran started acting up"
WHO's acting up? Those countries are merely trying to defend themselves from the "great satan". Did you notice that in the process they are defending the principle of national sovereignty? If you have two nations on earth, both the same size, they are obligated to treat each other well. If one is larger, it will typically have to work harder to fulfill its obligation. When one nation treats the other badly that isn't a license for other other to do the same. It should first try "turning the other cheek", and when this fails to defuse the aggression, then it must apply a more forceful form of deterrence in a limited amount only to re-establish justice. This is a familiar system, not simple but not complex either. It is well-known and practiced by most, outside the USA.
For many years activists here marked Hiroshima with various gatherings and events, often in church and university settings to contemplate grief and mourning and what we could learn and do to help prevent any more Hiroshimas. The Rocky Flats Nuclear Weapons plant where the deadly plutonium trigger discs for atomic bombs were produced was directly upwind from Denver and thus was an omnipresent part of our thinking. Now the plant has at long last been dismantled and memories fade or for a younger generation don't exist. Yet on the plains where Wyoming, Colorado and Nebraska meet more than 200 multi-warhead nuclear armed ICBM silos sit waiting, yet this deadly power to inflict a global holocaust is unknown to most residents of the area. The energies and focus of the anti-nuclear movement are kept alive, but barely. But the grim reality of nuclear weapons has not vanished. The ruling elites here will not give them up. Their organized greed and power has thus far outmaneuvered disorganized democracy.
One of my Sunday School teachers was a man who told stories of seeing firsthand the destruction caused by one of our A-bombs in Japan, I do not recall if it were Hiroshima or Nagasaki. In 1974 he died of cancer at 51 years old and it is my firm belief that he, too, was a casualty of that act.
etched on a large black granite cube under a cherry tree included in the Hiroshima Peace Park memorial:
GIVE BACK THE HUMAN-Sankichi Tage (or Toye?)
GIVE BACK MY FATHER, GIVE BACK MY MOTHER,
GIVE GRANDPA BACK, GRANDMA BACK.
GIVE MY SONS AND DAUGHTERS BACK.
GIVE ME BACK MYSELF.
GIVE BACK THE HUMAN RACE.
AS LONG AS THIS LIFE LASTS, THIS LIFE,
GIVE BACK PEACE THAT WILL NEVER END.
I often recall, escpecially of late, listening as a young child to my Irish grandmother, who cursed the Japanese attack that brought the U.S. into the war. "That damned new empire will now bring us to the end of civilised society", she loudly claimed to anyone who would listen.
At first, I assumed she was referring to the Japanese, or perhaps even the British for whom she certainly had no great love. But she soon corrected me: "Not those pipsqueaks. I'm talking about those damned Americans and their imperial ambitions. They're the biggest threat to civilization, and now they have an excuse."
Her analysis puzzled me at the time as it did many others who tended to dismiss it as the ramblings of age, but I now believe she was prescient.
We were taught that World War II was a struggle between the "allies" (good) and the "axis" (evil). But to carve such ideas into the school curricula is an evil in itself. The truth is that both were evil, just the "allies" the "lesser" and the "axis" the "greater". Today, some of those who consider themselves "lesser" because they voted for O'Bomber, are editing/updating the school curricula to ensure that the perpetrators (both lesser evil Demoks & greater evil Repuks) of the current imperial onslaughts (with 1.5 million Iraqi death victims and many millions more injured/displaced, the full population severely traumatized) are portrayed as "saving merika", lesser evil, so "we can all just get along" next few decades as good consumption slaves, because "united we stand", highly competitive and delusional.
One of the most amazing things in history is the development of amicable relationships between the Allies of WWII and the Axis countries, especially Germany and Japan. While we must never forget what happened, which means reviewing it constantly and teaching it assiduously to those far to young to remember, we also must remember and encourage the resilient and forgiving nature of the human spirit. Getting rid of the weapons is only one side of the equation.
This strikes me as true. However, part of what need be taught is the motivations for a lot of this, something that was left out of my formal education.
Educated in the US, I was taught that the US, from the goodness of its heart and mindful of the failure of the Treaty of Versailles at the end of WWI, treated the conquered Axis with unparalleled generosity, to which they naturally responded.
It took me an embarrassing number of years to put together that this had very little truth to it.
The larger factors generally omitted included concern that the former colonial areas would pass to popular control.
Of course, my elders had discussed such things, but in an oddly coded way. They spoke of the danger that one or another country would "go communist."
Apparently, loans and accords with the defeated fascist powers was less alarming than the potential wave of self-government across Africa and Asia.
Among other things, the US got bases across the globe - for better or for worse, for richer or for poorer, as Chalmers Johnson has amply discussed.
Grow up time: Hiroshima is the cut out story.
Col. North sold $14,000 or $14,000,000 worth of Stingers to Iran?
Try 3-6 $billion in arms (mostly through Israel) over the course of the Iran-Iraq war...thus, the cut-out story.
McNamara admits burning 66 Japanese cities, our Korean B-29 pilots were taught that we burned more than 50% of 108 cities in Japan BEFORE Hiroshima & Nagasaki..three fifths of all the homes in Japan.
The "official" body count for the Saturday morning of 10 March 1945 was 108,000 but burning 15 square miles of the poorest districts in Tokyo probably reduced a million "small brown people" to the stuff at the bottom of your turkey pan.
The Chinese suffered from more than a hundred Japanese aerial bombardments in the prior years, but each "mission" resulted in an average of 50 deaths, according to US figures.
Less than a month before,(February 1945) we used the B-17 to firebomb the major remaining wooden city in Europe, and than firebombed the closest towns THE NEXT DAY to kill as many refugees as we could.
In the 3 years it took to develop a way to kill Asia, we invented gelled gasoline (napalm) built towns in Iowa to test firestorms, built sculpted miniatures of targets with thousands of birthday candles in the film studios in England to prove low-level flying.
Lord Mountbatten experimented with the new B-29 in India, we succeed in building the crews and support logistics by the time we secured Tinian Island.
The B-29's left ONE building remaining in "North" Korea, killed perhaps two or three million "little brown people" on the Korean peninsula.
Our first (second? still debatable) H-bomb test in early 1950's was 2+ times larger than designed, probably killed 30,000 "small brown people" downwind in the 1950's.
Carpetbombing Indochina? Ho Che Min lived a few years in Brooklyn, he had OUR "Declaration Of Independence" read as an official deceleration, with a band and public celebration in Hanoi on 15 August 1945. Go Figure.
P.S. The result of making electricity with uranium (from Zaire:(and Uganda:( ) is free "Atomic Bombs", paid for by utility "ratepayers" instead of taxes.