[Buddha-l] Hiroshima vs Terrorism..........?

[Richard P. Hayes]

On Sat, 2005-10-08 at 12:27 -0400, Stanley J. Ziobro II wrote:

> If I can find a certain URL I'll send it along.  The author of a highly
> informative article thereon analyzes hitherto top secret WWII U.S.
> military and politcal documents relative to the planned invasion of Japan.

While you're looking for that URL, see if you can find an on-line
version of an article written some twenty years ago that chronicles the
evolution of American thought on how many lives the bombing of Hiroshima
and Nagasaki saved. What is interesting is that it climbs in direct
proportion to the number of deaths directly attributed to the atomic
bombs. In 1945 it was thought that the atomic bombs had saved perhaps
10,000 lives, but by 1955 the bombs had saved millions of lives. It
would not be too difficult to conclude that the number of lives saved
was more a reflection of feelings of guilt than on historical realities,
although the claim was always made that recently released top secret
documents were showing that the strength of the Japanese army, and the
fanaticism of their resolve to fight to the last infant had been
drastically underestimated. 

Another major factor, of course, was the massive paranoia being
generated during the McCarthy era. The more people gave in to mass
hysteria about the Soviet threat, the more lives the atomic bombs were
credited with saving.

> In terms of statistics it is difficult to deny that dropping the bombs saved lives.

It may be difficult for you to deny something you desperately want to
believe. But the lives allegedly saved are all hypothetical and
speculative. The lives lost were real, as were the horrible illnesses
and psychological traumas experienced by the survivors of the attack. To
believe that the suffering caused by the bombs was in any way
justifiable is to wallow in a delusion. To the extent that that delusion
becomes a basis for justifying other wars, it is a dangerous one.

>   We've now got information tat it was precisely the
> dropping of the bomb on Nagasaki that decided the Japanese high command to
> surrender to the Allied Forces.

Yes, and we also have the information that is was precisely the
unwarranted embargo of the flow of goods to Japan by American ships that
decided the Japanese high command to bomb Pearl Harbor. Had it not been
for American aggression, the Americans would not have been drawn into
the war in the Pacific, and had they not be drawn into that war, it
would not have been necessary for Americans to save lives by the
essentially terrorist tactic of dropping bombs on two completely non-
military targets in which the only lives lost were civilians and
hospitalized military personnel.  

-- 
Richard Hayes <rhayes at unm.edu> 
*** 
"Everybody's crying `Peace on earth--
just as soon as we win this war.'" -- Mose Allison