Humanitarian Crimes

HIROSHIMA and NAGASAKI – OBVIOUS WAR CRIMES

During WWII the nuclear bombing of these two Japanese cities were war crimes.  This was covered up in order to keep the innocence of American capitalism intact.  For many people in the U.S. it has succeeded.  But the bombings were not really about protecting ‘our boys in uniform.’  Facts always get in the way of pretty, lying stories. These are the facts:

1. 18 Japanese cities were carpet bombed using conventional weapons by Curtis LeMay, starting in March 1945.  For instance, 50% of Tokyo and 99% of Toyama were destroyed and this kind of damage was visited on large parts of 16 other cities – not including Hiroshima or Nagasaki.  Cities in Japan were built with wood…so they burned easily.  See McNamara ‘You Tube’ video for graphics on these bombings.  So if 'conventional' bombing of civilians was proceeding (and these could be considered war crimes too...) why H/N?
2. Eisenhower and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, William Leahy, were against the H/N bombings. 
3. LeMay told McNamara that if the U.S. lost the war, they would be tried for war crimes over the nuclear bombing of Japan.  McNamara agreed: "If we'd lost the war, we'd all have been prosecuted as war criminals."
4. Before the bombing, the Japanese had been in negotiations with the Russians and U.S. for several months over surrender terms, starting in May 1945.  The first bomb was dropped on August 6, 1945.  The main Japanese demand was to keep the emperor.  The U.S. said ‘no’ at the time.  After H/N, the U.S. agreed they could keep their emperor… so the whole thing was a delaying tactic.  Both Nimitz and McArthur agreed the Japanese were negotiating surrender.
5. Truman’s announcement of the H/N bombings made no mention of ‘saving U.S. soldiers lives’ as the reason for the bombing.  Instead the braggadocio statement was about collective punishment and power.  Remember, the U.S. imprisoned all U.S. residents of Japanese descent in camps…so anti-Japanese ‘Jap’ racism was standard issue. 
6. A follow-up report by the U.S. Strategic Bombing Survey, from the highest levels of the U.S. military, said H/N was not militarily necessary.
7. Most historians understand that the bombing was a threat to the USSR.  The Soviets entered Manchuria two days after Hiroshima on August 8, moving towards Japan.  The Japanese actually surrendered, not because of the bombing, but because of the Soviets.  See Suzuki quote below. The U.S. Navy Museum in Washington D.C. agrees. The bombings were designed to intimidate the USSR.   See quote by Byrnes below. 
8. Killing civilians intentionally is a war crime.  Killing more than 225,000 people with two bombs instantaneously is … what?  That is only the initial numbers…as many died or were deformed later due to radiation poisoning. 
9. The ‘humanitarian’ U.S. is the only country in the world to drop nuclear bombs.  Due to long-lasting radiation effects, that is even worse than fire-bombing whole cities, which the U.S. did in Germany AND Japan during WWII.
10. From that day forward, a dominant and heavily militarized U.S. imperialism was loosed on the world. 

Humanitarian Bombing

Text of Boasting Truman Speech:

“Sixteen hours ago an American airplane dropped one bomb on Hiroshima, an important Japanese Army base. That bomb had more power than 20,000 tons of T.N.T. It had more than two thousand times the blast power of the British "Grand Slam" which is the largest bomb ever yet used in the history of warfare.

The Japanese began the war from the air at Pearl Harbor. They have been repaid many fold. And the end is not yet. With this bomb we have now added a new and revolutionary increase in destruction to supplement the growing power of our armed forces. In their present form these bombs are now in production and even more powerful forms are in development.  It is an atomic bomb. It is a harnessing of the basic power of the universe. The force from which the sun draws its power has been loosed against those who brought war to the Far East.”  (Note:  Bomb was dropped in center of city, far from any factories or military facilities…)

TRUMAN ADVISOR:

Presidential advisor James Byrnes had told Truman that dropping the bombs would allow the United States to “dictate the terms of ending the war.” Secretary of the Navy James Forrestal wrote in his diary that Byrnes was ‘most anxious to get the Japanese affair over with before the Russians got in.’

TRUMAN Notes:

Truman was well aware of the situation. He referred to the intercepted July 18 cable as the "telegram from the Jap emperor asking for peace."  Stalin will "be in the Jap war on August 15," Truman penned in his journal. "Fini Japs when that comes about." He wrote to his wife the next night, "We'll end the war a year sooner now, and think of the kids who won't be killed."

SUZUKI Statement:

After the USSR defeated the Japanese in Manchuria on August 8, Prime Minister Suzuki explained, Japan must surrender immediately or "the Soviet Union will take not only Manchuria, Korea, Karafuto, but also Hokkaido. This would destroy the foundation of Japan. We must end the war when we can deal with the United States." 

The Japanese surrender was announced on August 15 and the formal surrender (to the U.S.) on September 2, 1945.

The Manhattan Project matured under the saint, Franklin Delano Roosevelt.  Later in Vietnam, McNamara's role could be considered aiding a war crime.  In Vietnam, Curtis LeMay wanted to drop a nuclear weapon on Hanoi.  Instead he did what he did to Japan, but worse - dropping more tonnage on Vietnam than all of WWII.  Leveling dozens of north Korean cities predated this. War crimes have continued up to now.  Even the invasion of Iraq could be considered a war crime and that is only for starters.  It is clear Hiroshima, Nagasaki and the conventional bombing of 18 other cities in Japan was a 'political' choice, not a military one.

It was the first shot in the Cold War and the last shot of Pearl Harbor.

Red Frog

December 5, 2018