78 years ago, on August 6, 1945, an atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima, resulting in the death of about 90 000 people (30% of residents) and the city was almost leveled. Of course, the above number does not include residents who died in the following months and years as a consequence of radiation sickness and another diseases resulting from the detonation – as many as 250,000 victims are mentioned. 3 days later, the United States made a second atomic attack, this time on the nipponese town of Nagasaki, where about 70,000 people died. The unprecedented nature of these events consisted not so much of the number of casualties (as a consequence of the raids on Tokyo and the resulting firestorm, more people died) but of the usage of weapons of mass demolition for the first time, the destructive force of which cannot be mastered in the event of escalation of armed conflicts.
The decision to drop an atomic bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki was made by U.S. overestimate Harry Truman allegedly due to the request to accelerate Japan's surrender and spare further casualties among American soldiers. This is why he decided unscrupulously to commit mass genocide of the helpless and impunity of innocent civilians, including women, children, aged and sick. Although modern wars abounded in action against civilians, the demolition has never occurred on specified a scale in specified a short time. Secondly, the usage of atomic weapons for the first time freed a proverbial genie from the bottle, as the production of weapons of mass demolition besides took on another states, which was peculiarly intensified during the arms race during the Cold War.
Did the United States gotta usage an atomic bomb to accomplish their strategical war goals? Definitely not. According to a study by the U.S. strategical Air Attack Commission, "even without attacks in the usage of atomic bombs, the air advantage over Japan could exert adequate force to declare unconditional surrender and avert the necessity of invasion" [1]. It was about the intimidation and humiliation of Japan, as well as showing the planet its military power founded on a pioneering atomic program. It is crucial to bear in head the economical arguments – around 150 000 people worked in the Manhattan trial, and the U.S. government spent about $2 billion on atomic bomb production [2].
The atomic attack on Hiroshima and Nagasaki was a turning point in the past of the planet – no 1 can sleep peacefully since, without fearing the usage of weapons of mass demolition in the event of armed conflict involving countries with atomic arsenal. It is besides a informing that the usage of atomic energy for war purposes can be tragic for all mankind. The paradox is that the state that utilized atomic weapons to attack Hiroshima and Nagasaki is now presenting itself as a global defender of democracy, human rights and a planet order stabilizer. This is absurd enough, that the United States was the initiator of most of the armed conflicts after planet War II, to mention only the most celebrated ones: aggression in Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan, or Yugoslavia. The tallness of hypocrisy is so the claim that the United States is the guarantor of planet peace, proclaimed widely by neoconservative and neoliberal environments.
On the anniversary of the atomic attack on Hiroshima 1 should besides consider the thoughtlessness, or even the folly of political elites ruling Poland. Although it is widely known that in the case of atomic war there are no wins or losses – the organization ruling our country, at the admission of a large part of the opposition – provides military aid to Ukraine, which leads to the inevitable escalation of war. This clearly involves the hazard of transforming the current conflict into a atomic conflict, given that the war in Ukraine is actually the replacement war of the West with Russia. This is not about justifying Russia's aggression against Ukraine in February 2022, but about the actual long-term causes of the war, which was a policy of confrontation with Russia launched at the 2008 Bucharest summit and then continued during the events in Majdan in 2013. May the gates of hell be lifted in Hiroshima never opened in full width!
Michał Radzikowski
[1] quote for: Rafał Górski: “Hiroshima and Nagasaki – American founding genocide” (12.04.2022 – institute of civic affairs.pl).
[2] ibid. – based on: Rodric Braithwaite ‘Armagedon and Paranoia. Cold War – atomic Confrontation".
