atomic bomb cloud
photo by Charles Levy
It was seventy-five years ago today that the United States dropped the plutonium bomb on the city of Nagasaki in Japan; along with the atomic bombing of Hiroshima three days prior, it ushered in the Nuclear Age and the terror and fears that come with it. The mistakes and misunderstandings of the event were documented by John Hersey (links below).
The war had actually been over; President Truman was aware of this but went ahead with the action to test how the new weapon would work (links below)!
Hiroshima has muffled the voices of the Nagasaki hibakusha (“the bombed,” the term for atomic-bombing survivors), who have struggled for more than seven decades to gain equal attention for the trauma and aftermath of their bombing.
The different approaches to atomic commemoration taken by officials in each city has contributed to the rise of “Hiroshima” and impeded the memory work of the Nagasaki hibakusha to distinguish their experience as separate. Authorities in Hiroshima quickly rebuilt the city as a site of atomic trauma and peace activism, while their counterparts in Nagasaki downplayed the atomic bombing to instead promote the city as a site of historical cosmopolitanism.
Early reconstruction plans in Nagasaki explicitly set out to make the bombing a secondary characteristic of the city’s identity, much to the consternation of the hibakusha. Municipal officials (many of whom had also survived the bombing) chose instead to emphasize the city’s earlier historical legacy as a center of international trade and culture.
In reference to the destructive birth of the nuclear age, the focus is usually on Hiroshima. It was first, and firsts get precedence in memory. It was also more devastating an attack than Nagasaki, with nearly twice as many dead and injured and three times as much land area destroyed. (This was in spite of the fact that the Little Boy, dropped by the Enola Gay, was only three-quarters as explosive as the Fat Man.) But if Hiroshima was, from a military perspective, relatively well considered, well planned, and well executed, Nagasaki was almost the opposite. From the very beginning, it was a JANCFU (Joint Army Navy Combined Foul Up (polite form) or SNAFU of major proprtions—a sign that this new era was as likely to be a comedy of errors and near-misses as the product of reason and strategy. Nagasaki was not the original target, Kyoto was (links below).
Conventional wisdom holds that these two atomic explosions - the only use of nuclear bombs in the history of war - brought World War II to an end. Yet an increasing number of historians are critical of this interpretation. International experts say it is a myth and say it glorifies a war crime that killed more than 100 thousand civilians. Historian Tsuyoshi Hasegawa argues that the unexpected declaration of war by the Soviet Union on Japan is what really pushed Tokyo to surrender. He says that Japan had been hoping that Moscow would step in to broker a diplomatic end to the conflict. Research in Russian archives has discovered that the United States knew that, so why did it drop the bombs at all? Especially the second one? There is an excellent documentary on YouTube produced by Deutsche Welle (DW Documentary) as to whether it was even necessary; it is very difficult to watch (link below).
In 1939, physicists Albert Einstein and Leo Szilard drafted a letter to US President Franklin D. Roosevelt, urging him to research atomic bombs before the Germans could build one first. By 1942, the United States had approved the top-secret Manhattan Project to build a nuclear reactor and assemble an atomic bomb.
The war had actually been over; President Truman was aware of this but went ahead with the action to test how the new weapon would work (links below)!
Harry S. Truman - ca 1947
Official portrait
Hiroshima has muffled the voices of the Nagasaki hibakusha (“the bombed,” the term for atomic-bombing survivors), who have struggled for more than seven decades to gain equal attention for the trauma and aftermath of their bombing.
The different approaches to atomic commemoration taken by officials in each city has contributed to the rise of “Hiroshima” and impeded the memory work of the Nagasaki hibakusha to distinguish their experience as separate. Authorities in Hiroshima quickly rebuilt the city as a site of atomic trauma and peace activism, while their counterparts in Nagasaki downplayed the atomic bombing to instead promote the city as a site of historical cosmopolitanism.
Early reconstruction plans in Nagasaki explicitly set out to make the bombing a secondary characteristic of the city’s identity, much to the consternation of the hibakusha. Municipal officials (many of whom had also survived the bombing) chose instead to emphasize the city’s earlier historical legacy as a center of international trade and culture.
長崎
In reference to the destructive birth of the nuclear age, the focus is usually on Hiroshima. It was first, and firsts get precedence in memory. It was also more devastating an attack than Nagasaki, with nearly twice as many dead and injured and three times as much land area destroyed. (This was in spite of the fact that the Little Boy, dropped by the Enola Gay, was only three-quarters as explosive as the Fat Man.) But if Hiroshima was, from a military perspective, relatively well considered, well planned, and well executed, Nagasaki was almost the opposite. From the very beginning, it was a JANCFU (Joint Army Navy Combined Foul Up (polite form) or SNAFU of major proprtions—a sign that this new era was as likely to be a comedy of errors and near-misses as the product of reason and strategy. Nagasaki was not the original target, Kyoto was (links below).
Conventional wisdom holds that these two atomic explosions - the only use of nuclear bombs in the history of war - brought World War II to an end. Yet an increasing number of historians are critical of this interpretation. International experts say it is a myth and say it glorifies a war crime that killed more than 100 thousand civilians. Historian Tsuyoshi Hasegawa argues that the unexpected declaration of war by the Soviet Union on Japan is what really pushed Tokyo to surrender. He says that Japan had been hoping that Moscow would step in to broker a diplomatic end to the conflict. Research in Russian archives has discovered that the United States knew that, so why did it drop the bombs at all? Especially the second one? There is an excellent documentary on YouTube produced by Deutsche Welle (DW Documentary) as to whether it was even necessary; it is very difficult to watch (link below).
In 1939, physicists Albert Einstein and Leo Szilard drafted a letter to US President Franklin D. Roosevelt, urging him to research atomic bombs before the Germans could build one first. By 1942, the United States had approved the top-secret Manhattan Project to build a nuclear reactor and assemble an atomic bomb.
As he witnessed the first detonation of a nuclear weapon on July 16, 1945, a piece of Hindu scripture ran through the mind of Robert Oppenheimer: “Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds.”
The bomb used on the city of Nagasaki was actually a plutonium implosion bomb, whose code name was "Fat Man". The bomb used on Hiroshima had the code name, "Little Boy".
"Fat Man" - August, 1945
Tinian Island
photo: US Department of Energy
Even though the two bombs, which fell on Aug. 6 and 9, killed more than 200,000 people in the two cities and injured many others, the United States enforced a ban, in both countries, on photographs (yes, difficult to see but not for that reason) that showed the civilian impact (links below). There are indications that the bombing was unnecessary (link below).
Through much of World War II, Allied bombers would sometimes drop leaflets warning of the impending bombing of a city. The leaflets often told civilians to evacuate, and sometimes encouraged them to push their leaders to surrender. The first round, known as the "LeMay leaflets," were distributed before the bombing of Hiroshima. The historical record is unclear, but it seems as though these leaflets did not make it to Nagasaki until after it, too, had been hit by an atomic bomb (link below).
Located in the northern part of Nagasaki, the Urakami District was the location where hidden Christians resided during the 17th to 19th centuries during the ban on Christianity. Today, it is also known as the location of the Urakami Cathedral where the atomic bomb exploded. According to one theory, approx. 15,000 Christians were living in this area and more than 10,000 of them were killed (link below).
Urakami Cathedral (Before the atomic bombing)
photo: Nagasaki Atomic Bomb Museum
Urakami Cathedral - 1945
Bernard Hoffman/LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images
In 1947 an American docudrama film about the development of the atomic bomb in World War II was released entitled, The Beginning or the End; the title was supplied by President Harry S. Truman.
The Beginning or the End - 1947
movie poster
The Beginning or the End was directed by Norman Taurog and starred Brian Donlevy, Robert Walker, and Tom Drake, and released by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. The film dramatizes the creation of the atomic bomb in the Manhattan Project and the bombing of Hiroshima.
The film originated in October 1945 as a project of actress Donna Reed and her high school science teacher, Edward R. Tompkins, who was a chemist at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory.
MGM camera crew - July 1946
photo by
In 1954, when the monster Godzilla, or “Gojira,” (a giant dinosaur depicted in the film as having been aggravated by a hydrogen bomb) appeared before Japanese movie audiences, many left the theaters in tears (link below).
Godzilla - 1954
The heavily furrowed skin or scales of the monster were imagined to resemble the keloid scars of survivors of the two atomic bombs that the U.S. dropped on Japan nine years earlier.
keloid scar - 2014
photo by Dr. Michael H. Tirgan
At this date the The US Government plans to spend over a trillion dollars on nuclear weapons. This spending is not set in stone and depends on the willingness of Congress to continue to provide funding for each project in successive yearly allocation processes. Moreover, the 2017 report discusses a political reality determined by eight years of the Obama Administration, not Trump Administration priorities, such as possibly restarting nuclear weapons testing and developing low-yield nuclear arms. Ultimately, the decision about investment in nuclear modernization is reached through a complex process involving work of executive branch agencies like the Department of Defense, the President’s yearly budget request, and confirmation or denial by Congress of any particular monetary request. This means that the $1.2 trillion figure captures a moment in time—one possibility of what the true outcome may be. (link below).
Viewfinder links:
Net links:
Arts & Culture ~ Atomic Bombing in Nagasaki & the Urakami Cathedral
Atomic Heritage Foundation ~
Hiroshima and Nagasaki Bombing Timeline
Warning (LeMay) Leaflets
CNN ~ The bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in pictures
Columbia k1project ~
Hiroshima and Nagasaki: The Long Term Health Effects
US Plans to Spend Over a Trillion Dollars on Nuclear Weapons
The Guardian ~ Truman: Hiroshima and Nagasaki nuclear bombs
Columbia k1project ~
Hiroshima and Nagasaki: The Long Term Health Effects
US Plans to Spend Over a Trillion Dollars on Nuclear Weapons
The Guardian ~ Truman: Hiroshima and Nagasaki nuclear bombs
History ~ Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Before and After the Bombs photos
NBC News ~ 'Godzilla' was a metaphor for Hiroshima
The New Yorker ~ Nagasaki: The Last Bomb
NY Times ~ These Photographers Worked Under Mushroom Clouds NBC News ~ 'Godzilla' was a metaphor for Hiroshima
The New Yorker ~ Nagasaki: The Last Bomb
Time ~ Why We Shouldn't Overlook Nagasaki
U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) ~ The Atomic Bombing of Nagasaki
Washington Post ~ Americans insist the atom bomb ended the war in Japan
Wired ~ The story of Oppenheimer's infamous quote
Washington Post ~ Americans insist the atom bomb ended the war in Japan
Wired ~ The story of Oppenheimer's infamous quote
YouTube links:
BBC Studios ~ Atomic bombing of Nagasaki
British Movietone ~ Atomic Bomb dropped on Nagasaki 1945 newsreel
British Movietone ~ Atomic Bomb dropped on Nagasaki 1945 newsreel
DW Documentary ~ Why did the US drop the second bomb? (42:24)
Wired ~ Rare Nuclear Bomb Footage
Trinity test of the Manhattan Project - July 16, 1945
“Now I am become Death,
the destroyer of worlds”
the destroyer of worlds”
~ Robert Oppenheimer
from the Bhagavad-Gita
No comments:
Post a Comment
PLEASE NOTE: comments are moderated BEFORE they are posted so DO NOT appear immediately.
Thank you.