Tag: Japan

06 August 1945

Today is the 80th anniversary of the nuking of Hiroshima…..then a second bomb was dropped on 09 August on Nagasaki…..which according to some ended the Second World War.

But there are some historians that believe the bomb was unnecessary to end the war…..there were many prominent people that did not agree with Truman and his decision….

“In 1945 Secretary of War Stimson, visiting my headquarters in Germany, informed me that our government was preparing to drop an atomic bomb on Japan. I was one of those who felt that there were a number of cogent reasons to question the wisdom of such an act. … The Secretary, upon giving me the news of the successful bomb test in New Mexico, and of the plan for using it, asked for my reaction, apparently expecting a vigorous assent. During his recitation of the relevant facts, I had been conscious of a feeling of depression and so I voiced to him my grave misgivings, first on the basis of my belief that Japan was already defeated and that dropping the bomb was completely unnecessary, and secondly because I thought that our country should avoid shocking world opinion by the use of a weapon whose employment was, I thought, no longer mandatory as a measure to save American lives. It was my belief that Japan was, at that very moment, seeking some way to surrender with a minimum loss of ‘face.’ The Secretary was deeply perturbed by my attitude.” —Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower

“The use of the atomic bomb, with its indiscriminate killing of women and children, revolts my soul.” —Herbert Hoover

“[T]he Japanese were prepared to negotiate all the way from February 1945 … up to and before the time the atomic bombs were dropped; … [I]f such leads had been followed up, there would have been no occasion to drop the bombs.” —Herber Hoover

“I told [Gen. Douglas] MacArthur of my memorandum of mid-May 1945 to Truman, that peace could be had with Japan by which our major objectives would be accomplished. MacArthur said that was correct and that we would have avoided all of the losses, the Atomic bomb, and the entry of Russia into Manchuria.” —Herbert Hoover

“MacArthur’s views about the decision to drop the atomic bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were starkly different from what the general public supposed. When I asked General MacArthur about the decision to drop the bomb, I was surprised to learn he had not even been consulted. What, I asked, would his advice have been? He replied that he saw no military justification for the dropping of the bomb. The war might have ended weeks earlier, he said, if the United States had agreed, as it later did anyway, to the retention of the institution of the emperor.” —Norman Cousins.

https://www.antiwar.com/blog/2021/06/05/who-opposed-nuking-japan/

There were many reasons not to drop the bomb…..then why was the decision made?

Was it to impress the USSR?

Was it to flex our military muscle to the world?

Why was the decision made?

Any thoughts?

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Philippines, Japan, Australia–Oh My

Meanwhile back at the South China Sea.

The US is paranoid about the South China Sea and has set aside billions for Taiwan and the waters around the island.

The US held a meeting and made a new pact…..

The US has been working to increase military cooperation with the Philippines, Japan, and Australia as part of its strategy against China in the Asia Pacific, a grouping Pentagon officials privately call the “Squad,” Bloomberg reported on Friday.

The defense chiefs of the US, the Philippines, Japan, and Australia met in Hawaii on May 2 and issued a joint readout that used harsh rhetoric against China’s claims to the South China Sea and the East China Sea, two areas where the US has vowed to intervene if the maritime disputes turn into shooting wars.

“The Ministers and Secretaries expressed serious concern about the situation in the East and South China Seas,” the readout said. “They strongly objected to the dangerous use of coast guard and maritime militia vessels in the South China Sea. They reiterated serious concern over the PRC’s (People’s Republic of China) repeated obstruction of Philippine vessels’ exercise of high seas freedom of navigation and the disruption of supply lines to Second Thomas Shoal, which constitute dangerous and destabilizing conduct.”

They also vowed to increase military cooperation, including in the South China Sea. “The Ministers and Secretaries discussed opportunities to further advance defense cooperation, including through continued maritime cooperation in the South China Sea, enhanced procedures to enable coordination and information sharing arrangements, as well as strengthening capacity building,” the readout said.

(antiwar.com)

The US has repeatedly vowed that the US-Philippine Mutual Defense Treaty applies to attacks on Philippine vessels in the South China Sea. Similarly, the US has affirmed that the mutual defense portion of the US-Japan Security Treaty would apply to the Senkaku Islands, Japanese-controlled islands in the East China Sea that are also claimed by China.

I have to ask….does that Mutual Defense thing about Filipino vessels extend to derelicts?

I ask that simple question because of something I read……

Earlier this month, President Biden asserted that US support for the Philippines is “ironclad.” A new story in the Washington Post explains how that promise might be tested in the not-too-distant future thanks to a rusting warship.

  • The ship: The BRP Sierra Madre belongs to the Philippines, which deliberately ran it aground on the Second Thomas Shoal in 1999 in order to stake its claim to an outpost in the disputed South China Sea. The ship is no longer seaworthy, but Philippine military vessels routinely bring supplies out to the Filipino marines aboard.
  • ‘Asia’s next war’: Chinese military ships harass the Filipino supply ships with water cannons, and it’s a dangerous tactic, as videos show. If things escalate, or a Philippine service member is killed, that could trigger a US response under a 1951 mutual defense treaty, per the Post. The story describes the ship as a flashpoint that could lead to “Asia’s next war.”
  • Days numbered: The ship is destined to succumb to the elements, and it could be a matter of months, not years, according to an analysis in the Guardian. China accuses the Philippines of trying to rehab the ship to make it a permanent fixture on the atoll, which the Philippines denies. China maintains an outpost on the nearby Mischief Reef, and would likely try to claim Second Thomas Shoal as part of its ever-expanding dominance of the sea.
  • One proposal: The Philippines and the US should act before the ship disintegrates, writes Blake Herzinger at War on the Rocks. “The Philippines should remove the Sierra Madre and replace it with a permanent structure manned by combined rotational forces from both the Philippines and the U.S. Marine Corps,” he writes. “Such a forward operating base would be a powerful signal of commitment to the alliance for both nations.”

Cool!  We could actually go to war over some piece of junk stranded on an atoll because some country wants to clai8m it as theirs….is that about right?

This is just sick!  Nay it is DISGUSTING!

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“lego ergo scribo”

Were Those Bombs Necessary?

Today of all days should be remembered!

It is a sweltering Sunday and 78 years ago today the US dropped the first atomic bomb on Japan which some say made the war come to an end.

There has been a debate lately around the use of these bombs….were they truly necessary?

The anniversaries of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki present an opportunity to demolish a cornerstone myth of American history — that those twin acts of mass civilian slaughter were necessary to bring about Japan’s surrender, and spare a half-million US soldiers who’d have otherwise died in a military conquest of the empire’s home islands.

Those who attack this mythology are often reflexively dismissed as unpatriotic, ill-informed or both. However, the most compelling witnesses against the conventional wisdom were patriots with a unique grasp on the state of affairs in August 1945 — America’s senior military leaders of World War II.

Let’s first hear what they had to say, and then examine key facts that led them to their little-publicized convictions:

  • General Dwight Eisenhoweron learning of the planned bombings: “I had been conscious of a feeling of depression and voiced to [Secretary of War Stimson] my grave misgivings, first on the basis of my belief that Japan was already defeated and that dropping the bomb was completely unnecessary, and secondly because I thought that our country should avoid shocking world opinion by the use of a weapon whose employment was, I thought, no longer mandatory as a measure to save American lives. It was my belief that Japan was, at that very moment, seeking some way to surrender with a minimum loss of ‘face’.”

  • Admiral William Leahy, Truman’s Chief of Staff: “The use of this barbarous weapon…was of no material assistance in our war against Japan. The Japanese were already defeated and ready to surrender because of the effective sea blockade and the successful bombing with conventional weapons.”

  • Major General Curtis LeMay, 21st Bomber Command: “The war would have been over in two weeks without the Russians entering and without the atomic bomb…The atomic bomb had nothing to do with the end of the war at all.”

  • General Hap Arnold, US Army Air Forces: “The Japanese position was hopeless even before the first atomic bomb fell, because the Japanese had lost control of their own air.” “It always appeared to us that, atomic bomb or no atomic bomb, the Japanese were already on the verge of collapse.”

  • Ralph Bird, Under Secretary of the Navy: “The Japanese were ready for peace, and they already had approached the Russians and the Swiss…In my opinion, the Japanese war was really won before we ever used the atom bomb.”

  • Brigadier General Carter Clarke, military intelligence officer who prepared summaries of intercepted cables for Truman: “When we didn’t need to do it, and we knew we didn’t need to do it…we used [Hiroshima and Nagasaki] as an experiment for two atomic bombs. Many other high-level military officers concurred.”

  • Fleet Admiral Chester Nimitz, Pacific Fleet commander: “The use of atomic bombs at Hiroshima and Nagasaki was of no material assistance in our war against Japan. The Japanese were already defeated and ready to surrender.”

https://starkrealities.substack.com/p/hiroshima-nagasaki-bombings-were

There was more opposition to nuking Japan than we were ever told….read what so many had to say about the idea of using the bombs on Japan.

Like this report from 1946….

“[E]ven without the atomic bombing attacks, air supremacy over Japan could have exerted sufficient pressure to bring about unconditional surrender and obviate the need for invasion. Based on a detailed investigation of all the facts, and supported by the testimony of the surviving Japanese leaders involved, it is the Survey’s opinion that certainly prior to 31 December 1945, and in all probability prior to 1 November 1945, Japan would have surrendered even if the atomic bombs had not been dropped, even if Russia had not entered the war, and even if no invasion had been planned or contemplated.”

— U.S. Strategic Bombing Survey, 1946

There are so many more voices….read them and you decide.

https://libertarianinstitute.org/blog/who-opposed-nuking-japan/

Like so much of our history is built on myths and propaganda.

They had to sell the deaths of so many as somehow adding the end of the war….and so more history had been whitewashed.

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NATO’s Move East

About a month ago the announcement was made that NATO is opening an office in Japan…..I let my opinion be known on how much I thought this is a bad idea…..but read it for yourself…….

NATO Moves East

Looks like not all of NATO’s members are down with this stupidity…..

French President Emmanuel Macron objects to NATO’s plans to open a liaison office in Japan and thinks the alliance should stay in the North Atlantic, Financial Times reported on Monday.

NATO’s push to open its first office in the Asia Pacific is part of the US’s plans to get its Western allies more involved in its strategy against China in the region. NATO’s plans to open a Japan office were first reported by Nikkei Asia in early May, drawing a rebuke from Beijing.

People familiar with the matter told Financial Times that France’s position has complicated NATO talks on the Japan office, which have been ongoing for months. A French official said that Paris believes the NATO charter limits the alliance’s geographic range to the North Atlantic.

Macron has said publicly that he doesn’t think NATO should expand beyond the North Atlantic. “If … we push Nato to enlarge the spectrum and the geography, we will make a big mistake,” the French leader said last week.

All 31 NATO members need to agree to open a new liaison office, meaning France could potentially block the move. News of France’s position comes nearly two months after Macron said Europe should not follow the US into a conflict with China over Taiwan.

NATO has had its eyes on China for a few years now, and Beijing has repeatedly warned the alliance to stay out of the region. “NATO’s continued eastward foray into the Asia Pacific and interference in regional affairs will inevitably undermine regional peace and stability and stoke camp confrontation. This calls for high vigilance among regional countries,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning said last month.

(antiwar.com)

I am glad to see that at least someone in NATO sees the folly in NATO moving East…..I agree as the name implies NATO should restrict itself to the North Atlantic.

Moving East is not going to work out well….it will not insure peace…the opposite maybe the outcome.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Women’s History #4

If you are a fan of foreign films then I bet you have watched the Japanese classics about the samurai….all the main characters were male but during the upheavals on the island there were so much more than dudes running around sword fighting and cutting off heads.

The year is 1868 and the Onna-Bugeisha are participants in the great Meiji restoration.

Her formerly snow-white clothes were stained red. She had cropped her long hair and tied it into a knot above her head. Her hands held a heavy halberd. Kawahara Asako had just killed her mother-in-law and young daughter to prevent them from falling into the enemy’s hands. Drenched in their blood, she marched onto the battlefield, ready to die defending her home.

Kawahara fought in the Battle of Aizu, named for a region in the northern part of Japan. It was one of the deadliest conflicts of the Boshin War, the civil conflict that shook Japan from 1868 to 1869. It saw the Imperial forces of Emperor Meiji face the Tokugawa shogunate, the military regime that had governed Japan since 1603. The shogunate, to which the Aizu were allied, wanted to preserve Japan’s insularity, its traditional way of life, and curtail Western influences. The emperor, on the other hand, was spearheading the country’s transformation into a modern nation-state in a revolution from above.

The Meiji Restoration ended Japan’s seclusion policy and opened the country up to foreign powers, hastening change in almost all areas of life. But fundamental societal transformations rarely go smoothly. At stake was nothing less than the very soul and future of Japan.

When the imperial forces invaded the Aizu region in 1868, they did so to cement their control of Japan. That October, the emperor’s troops, outnumbering the shogunate soldiers and in possession of better supplies, made quick progress in taking settlements. After sustaining heavy losses, the Aizu population was ordered to barricade themselves in nearby Tsuruga Castle.

Onna-Bugeisha, the Female Samurai Warriors of Feudal Japan

I have always been amazed at the samurai dedication to Bushido, the code of the warrior, where honor and duty are paramount something we Americans should learn and hold dear.

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Senkaku Islands

Huh?

Where the Hell are these islands?

Easy remedy to that question…..

Japan-China relations - Jingoist jangles | Asia | The Economist

There seems to be a bit of a problem with the oil and gas fields in and around the islands…..everybody wants a slice of that pie…..especially China….

Let me continue the education…..this is the conflict according to Japan…..

China’s maritime adventurism in the East and South China Seas has lately attracted considerable attention. Fifty percent of China’s claimed jurisdictional waters are competing with neighboring countries in the East Asia.2 The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has named People’s Republic of China (PRC) as a maritime power in the 18th Party Congress in 2012 (People’s daily Online in Japanese, November 12 2012), and the PRC challenges Japan, the U.S.A., and the ASEAN countries. What happens in the East China Sea? China takes the maritime offensive against Japan. The authordefines the word “offensive” not only the military means, but also the political, legal, economic, and psychological means to oppress the competitor.3 If so, the Chinese maritime offensive against Japan includes not only the actual maritime conflict in the East China Sea, but also the natural resources demand at the disputed waters, anti-Japan demonstration inside and outside of China, the sovereignty assertion in relevant to historical issues with Japan, CCP’s internal power struggle, and China’s national integration policy.

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/24761028.2019.1626567

The question is what is China’s desire for this region?

China’s recent moves are destabilizing, and Japan clearly stated as much in a newly released defense white paper. In the report, the Japanese government presents the nature of the Chinese challenge to its security — especially to the Senkaku islands — in the strongest terms yet. Chinese authorities are in fact described as “relentlessly” pressing their claims to the islands with ever-increasing levels of maritime activities undermining the status quo. Japanese Defense Minister Taro Kono made clear that further intensification of activities might trigger the intervention of Japanese military assets. In response to Japanese concerns, the commander of U.S. military forces in Japan has stated that the United States would help monitor the situation. Every successful step Beijing takes in undermining the status quo around the Senkakus through coercion and force is a direct challenge to the credibility of the U.S.-Japanese alliance and, crucially, to the principles informing the maritime rules-based order centered on the 1982 Convention on the Law of the Sea. While the United States is not party to this treaty, both China and Japan are, and Abe has clearly articulated why China’s actions around the Senkakus fundamentally undermine the principles enshrined in the convention.

What Is China’s Strategy in the Senkaku Islands?

In recent years the US has been itching for a fight with China…the South China Sea and now the Senkaku Islands……it is so serious that the US has stated that it could send troops to the islands…..

American troops could be sent to disputed islands inthe East China Sea, the head of US forces in Japan said, as the two allies began a high-profile drill amid growing concerns overBeijing’s military activities in the region

“Our arrival today was simply to demonstrate the ability to move a few people, but the same capability could be used to deploy combat troops to defend the Senkaku Islands or respond to other crises and contingencies,” Lieutenant General Kevin Schneider, commander of US Forces Japan,

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3107291/american-troops-could-be-sent-defend-senkaku-islands-us

Just those warmongering words should terrify Americans…they are basically daring China to act…..and the ultimatum could be disastrous…..

Hopefully calmer heads will prevail in January.

Then again those heads may not prevail…….

According to a readout of a call between President-elect Joe Biden and Japanese Prime Minister Suga, Biden recommitted the U.S. to defending the Senkaku Islands as part of the mutual defense treaty between the U.S. and Japan:

Biden confirmed that Article 5 of the Japan-U.S. Security Treaty will be applied to the defense of Okinawa Prefecture and the Senkaku Islands. Article 5 stipulates that the U.S. is obliged to defend Japan should its territories come under attack. Former President Barack Obama was the first U.S. leader to declare that the pact applies to the Senkakus.

Biden is reaffirming the position that the Obama administration took in 2014, but that doesn’t make this commitment any wiser or better than it was when it was first made. As a general rule, the U.S. shouldn’t extend its defense commitments to include disputed territories. In this particular case, committing to defend the Senkakus makes even less sense because these are just uninhabited rocks in the ocean. It strains credulity that the U.S. would actually go to war with China for the sake of these rocks, and that makes it more likely that China will test that commitment. The U.S. risks undermining its commitments to treaty allies when it recklessly expands them to include territory that we aren’t going to defend when push comes to shove. Instead of deterring China and protecting a treaty ally, this commitment seems more likely to create an unnecessary flashpoint that could lead to further escalation.

Would You Die for the Senkakus?

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More Space Stuff

My weekend begins with cooler temps and a weary mind from all the manure being spread in the media.

For something different I will will try to educate rather than obfuscate……

I may well be the only blogger that spends more time reading news than on social media body shaming some dickweed in LA……plus I do not see the need for blogs about fashion or make-up……such a self-absorbed society we have become.

Any way I have been watching the news about space and its exploration…..plus trying to get people to realize the plans that some are making are a violation of a treaty signed years ago….and may be illegal.

The newest news…….start with China…..they will be firing up an asteroid mining bot soon……

Beijing-based private space mining company Origin Space is launching its first ever “space mining robot” in November, IEEE Spectrum reports, on top of a Long March series rocket.

The concept of excavating resources in space is highly controversial. Many scientists have called for the solar system to be protected from such practices — but that hasn’t stopped global superpowers, particularly the US and China, from investigating ways to do so.

It may become a milestone moment in the country’s efforts to make use of space resources — but the robot, dubbed NEO-1, won’t be mining any asteroids itself.

https://futurism.com/the-byte/chinese-startup-space-mining-robot

While Japan is focusing on the moons of Mars and the possibility that human will soon land out there…..

Japan’s Martian Moons eXploration (MMX) mission aims to probe and observe Mars’ two moons, Phobos and Deimos, collect surface material, and return them to Earth.

MMX is scheduled to launch in 2024 and bring back rocks and other samples, possibly from Phobos, the larger of the two moons, five years later in 2029.

That puts Japan and its space agency JAXA in direct competition with the USA and Europe. The European Space Agency (ESA) and America’s NASA are working on a joint mission to bring back samples from the planet, but that may be two years later in 2031.

Those samples would be collected by NASA’s Perseverance rover, which is on its way there now. The rover will store samples in a process called “sample caching,” and wait until they can be retrieved later. Those would be the first samples returned from Mars.

https://www.dw.com/en/japans-mars-moons-mission-leads-to-human-spaceflight/a-54961901

A few visual aids for those that break out in a rash if they must read…..

There is a treaty already in place……

The rush to Mars reminds me of the 15th century rush to claim the New World and its treasures….but who actually owns what?

This situation will get uglier as the decades go by….and I do not think that it will end well for anyone.

But speaking of Mars.  How will the visitors build their shelters once they arrive?

Of course there is an answer….insect polymer.

A team of researchers are suggesting we could use one of the most common organic polymers on Earth to construct shelters on Mars.

The material, called chitin, is produced and metabolized by most biological organisms and makes up the bulk of the cell walls in fungi, insect exoskeletons, and fish scales.

The team, led by Javier Fernandez from the Singapore University of Technology and Design, attempted to make the material by combining a fiber made from chitin with mineral material that mimic the Martian soil.

https://futurism.com/the-byte/scientists-new-technique-build-mars-shelters

Now you know stuff you care nothing about….peace out.

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09 August 1945–1100 Hours

The second and final A-bomb was dropped on Nagasaki, Japan.

Thus ending the Second World War.

Ever since there has been a debate on whether the bombs were necessary for the Allies to have won the war……I thoughts are NO.

But most people see it differently…I offer another view…..

At a time when Americans are reassessing so many painful aspects of our nation’s past, it is an opportune moment to have an honest national conversation about our use of nuclear weapons on Japanese cities in August 1945. The fateful decision to inaugurate the nuclear age fundamentally changed the course of modern history, and it continues to threaten our survival. As the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists’ Doomsday Clock warns us, the world is now closer to nuclear annihilation than at any time since 1947.

The accepted wisdom in the United States for the last 75 years has been that dropping the bombs on Hiroshima on Aug. 6, 1945, and on Nagasaki three days later was the only way to end the World War II without an invasion that would have cost hundreds of thousands of American and perhaps millions of Japanese lives. Not only did the bombs end the war, the logic goes, they did so in the most humane way possible.

However, the overwhelming historical evidence from American and Japanese archives indicates that Japan would have surrendered that August, even if atomic bombs had not been used — and documents prove that President Truman and his closest advisors knew it.

https://www.commondreams.org/views/2020/08/06/dropping-atomic-bombs-hiroshima-and-nagasaki-was-unnecessary

Final note…..Americans hatred for the Japanese after WW2 lead to the events of the A-bombs…….and among the Black community were the loudest opponents to the use of these weapons…….

…  missing is the recognition that African-Americans were some of the first in the country to voice concern about or even condemn the bomb, and that Black leftists were some of the first to draw the connections between colonialism, racism, capitalism and war. 

The general American hatred for the Japanese during World War II cannot be overstated. Thanks to the tireless activism of younger Japanese-Americans in the 1960s and 1970s, many Americans now know about the inhumane internment of Japanese-Americans during WWII — less know that Nazi POWs held in American camps were often treated with musical, theatrical, and even movie showings on most nights, set up volleyball leagues with their guards, were invited to dances and other social events, and would even be able to visit shops and restaurants in town that Black American G.I.s could not. Some historians have pointed out that most Americans at the time could differentiate between Nazis and Germans, fascists and Italians — but with Japan, all Japanese people were not only suspect, but by their very nature the enemy. Everything was done to dehumanize Japanese people, from seemingly all major forces of society: 

Early opposition to the atomic bomb came from Black America

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The August Bombings

No this is not a post about the blast that recently hit Beirut, Lebanon……

Some say that these bombings saved lives (still working on that statement) and 75 years ago the Enola Gay flew over Hiroshima and let fly the living Hell that Japan had to live with.

Today marks the 75th anniversary of one of the most terrible war crimes ever carried out by imperialism against a defenseless civilian population, the atomic bombing of Hiroshima.

There is little indication that the anniversary of this criminal act, which introduced humanity to the horrors of mushroom clouds, radiation poisoning and the prospect of global annihilation, will receive any significant official commemoration. Yet, its relevance has never been greater as, behind the backs of the people of the United States and the world, US imperialism is steadily building up a massive nuclear arsenal and pursuing a doctrine of aggressive nuclear war.

At 8:15, out of the clear morning sky of August 6, 1945, the Enola Gay, a US B-29 Superfortress bomber, dropped an atomic bomb, code-named “Little Boy”, on the Japanese city of Hiroshima and its quarter of a million people.

https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2020/08/06/pers-a06.html

Some of the last survivors of those dark days are remembering the horror and the hints for tomorrow…..

Jiro Hamasumi’s mother was pregnant with him when the United States dropped a nuclear bomb on the Japanese city of Hiroshima on Aug. 6, 1945, killing tens of thousands instantly.

Today, at 74, Hamasumi is one of the remaining survivors of the attack pleading with world leaders to abolish nuclear arms.

“Hibakusha want the United States to apologize to us,” Hamasumi told Agence France-Press this week. “But the proof of the apology is nuclear abolition, we’re not after vengeance.”

AFP estimates there are about 136,700 living survivors of the attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, which ended the second World War in 1945.

https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/08/05/after-75-years-last-survivors-hiroshima-and-nagasaki-atomic-bombings-says-nuclear

I have worked for decades to help bring about the end of the “Nuclear Age”….we already have enough weapons to destroy our fellow humans why do we need more nukes?

The horrible experiment still continues today…..experiments that are NOT needed for national defense (the excuse for a continuing program)…..

The “experiment” continued long after the war was over. Between 1946 and 1958, the United States exploded 67 nuclear bombs in the Marshall Islands in the Pacific: the equivalent of more than one Hiroshima every day for 12 years.

The human and environmental consequences were catastrophic. During the filming of my documentary, The Coming War on China, I chartered a small aircraft and flew to Bikini Atoll in the Marshalls. It was here that the United States exploded the world’s first Hydrogen Bomb. It remains poisoned earth. My shoes registered “unsafe” on my Geiger counter. Palm trees stood in unworldly formations. There were no birds.

Another Hiroshima is Coming…Unless We Stop It Now

The US needs to return to the high ground and work to eliminate nukes from the world’s armories…..these weapons are NOT needed for security.

Only laziness pretends that nukes are the answer to national security.

Form god sake LEARN STUFF before it is too late!

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“lego ergo scribo”

07 December 1941

Closing Thought–07Dec19

Most Americans will observe this day as the beginning of World War Two….when the Japanese attacked our fleet in Pearl Harbor.

The date is burned into our history but the reasons for it have eluded us and our educational system for over 75 years.

I would like to take you back through our history with the nation of Japan to help explain what and why the attack was necessary…..

To understand Pearl Harbor, Burke took the audience back to 1853-1854 when U.S. Naval Captain Matthew C. Perry sailed to Japan and negotiated the opening of Japanese ports for trade. After more than 200 years of self-imposed isolation, Japan wanted to engage with the rest of the world.  

To compete globally, Japan needed resources—a theme that persistently pushes the narrative of Pearl Harbor to its climax. Iron and coal were key natural resources in the steam era at the end of the 19th century, but were not available in any significance on the Japanese island. Japan needed to look elsewhere.

Japan engaged in war in 1894-5 with China and in 1904-5 with Russia to secure resources. It was a 1905 win against the Russian Navy that shocked the world and alerted the U.S. that they needed to be prepared for a potential war with Japan.

https://airandspace.si.edu/stories/editorial/complicated-lead-pearl-harbor

In case more reading is needed……https://nationalinterest.org/blog/buzz/your-history-book-needs-help-real-reason-japan-attacked-pearl-harbor-99212

Our biggest problem that allow this attack to succeed was out hubris…

The US knew, in the second half of 1941, that Japan was preparing for war in the western Pacific and south-east Asia. Tokyo needed to secure material for its military operations in China – principally oil, tin, bauxite and rubber. But Washington was never aware of the final details of these plans.

US strategists knew, of course, that a Japanese offensive would chiefly target Dutch and British possessions in south-east Asia, because it was there that the raw materials required to fuel Japan’s imperial ambitions were located. They knew, also, that the US’s military presence in the Philippines would at some point come into the crosshairs. For some time, it had been clear that Japan was war-minded. Emperor Hirohito’s expansionist regime had been beating the war drum in Asia since it had entered Manchuria in 1931, and had begun military operations elsewhere in China in 1937. The world had seen the alacrity with which it had forced a humiliated France to submit to its demands in Indochina in June 1940, and had watched Japan sign the Tripartite Pact on 27 September 1940 with the European fascist aggressor nations, Germany and Italy.

https://www.historyextra.com/period/second-world-war/pearl-harbor-advance-knowledge-conspiracy-theory-debunked-did-america-predict-attack-date-day/

Please take a few moments out of your busy day to remember those that fought on that day…..there are not many of the veterans of that day and that war left for us to turn to and thank.

We cannot let their sacrifice and the debt we owe them to die in history by an uncaring nation.

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