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> When I was young in grade school, and learned about the bomb, and its terrifying aftermath, pictures, scars, I thought that this was clearly a wrong against
by Melting_Harps 6y ago
> When I was young in grade school, and learned about the bomb, and its terrifying aftermath, pictures, scars, I thought that this was clearly a wrong against humanity to have been dropped on anyone. Clearly the visceral kind of "this should never happen" reaction that any average person would have. "How could we put the Enola Gay on a stamp to glorify this?"
This is captured very well in Leiji Matsumoto's "The Cockpit" anime short, where in the protagonist, a Nazi Luftwaffe Pilot, is faced with the dilemma where Nazis had access to Nuclear weapons before the Allies but ultimately told from the perspective of the Japanese and perhaps even the Hibakusha themselves as he was born in 1938 and saw the the War in Japan first hand in this lifetime. It's pretty heavy stuff but conveys how this technology should not be in the hands of Humans in their current form, as its not worth the risk of the inevitable usecases we've collectively created thus far.
> Now, my 3rd phase of thinking -- beyond any opinion on tactics or reaction or bombs in the moment of a war -- is how do we get people to help themselves get out of the path to war? Each and every one of us, who whether by support or indifference, or tacit approval, or compounded misinformation, or ego, get ourselves into situations that we look back 50 years from now and say, "what happened?".
Honestly, War, especially to that massive destructive scale is only capable under the Nation-State model, which is what initially got me interested in Anarchism: as a tool for effective Anti-war measures.
I just fear Humanity may never truly be able to accept a Social model in which the State model is entirely absent and unnecessary before these things occur again, look how close this US vs CCP rhetoric is stoking the flames of potentially WW3 (both nuclear capable) when we have a so many ongoing crises that need the collective focus of all of Humanity to come close to even trying to solve.
Sidenote: The bombing of Horoshima and Nagasaki took place after the US had effectively crippled the Japanese economy and supply lines in a nation with no natural resources of their own. Its often speculated about how much longer they could have put up a resistance, prolonging Japan's defeat, and what would ultimately create a near permanent occupation by the US, but the War effort and the manufacturing of these armaments to the level they had before was impossible by the time Fat Man and Little Boy entered the Pacific theater.
Moreover, the constant conventional bombing and air raids of Tokyo by Allies (Tokyo Daikushu) claimed more lives (that still stands to this day) than both Nuclear bombs combined at the time of it being dropped, but the tragic thing being that that Hibakusha and their descendants still suffer long after the Empire fell, but still live with the horrible birth defects and health issues to this day. The way the US via GE and Westinghouse imposed Nuclear technology on them was perhaps the most cloaked dagger to Humanity I have ever seen in the reconstruction phase of all the 'axis' nations when you see how devastating Fukushima is (at the hands of TEPCO/Abe Government) that continues to pour massive nuclear contaminated water into the Pacific Ocean to this day.
The lesson (hopefully) being, that no one 'won' and all of Humanity 'lost' as we probably embarked on a very dark and destructive phase of our Human Condition that we probably would have been better not knowing we were capable of as a Species. Just look at the tragic plight of the Marshall Islands in the race for other nations to be Nuclear capable as well.
- Melting_Harps 6y agoAlso while we're on the subject of the Hibakusha, a seldom noted part of US History is not only the seldom spoken American-POW causalities from the Nuclear Bombings, but also less known are the American-born Hibakusha. Here is a mini documentary [1] told from perspective of the grandson interviewing his grandfather on just this subject, who was a Californian-born Japanese who went back to Japan to live with his family in Hiroshima while his entire American Citizen family back in California were sent to the one of the worst internement camps of all but he was also an American-Hibakusha (Nuclear bomb survivor). I'm may be biased as I grew up in the 90s when Japanese culture was mainstream and prevalent but also had Japanese childhood friends growing up in SoCal who were often the grandchildren of those sent to the camps, but it must be said that the way the Japanese were treated during this period is seriously one of the most dark and personally humiliating part of Californian History that I'm ashamed to admit took place. It shows how even being a supposed 'American' can be irrelevant if the State deems you as an enemy for actions that were done by a foreign nation completely unrelated to your own identity/citzenship if it its suits its end. Worse yet, all while lying how the US wasnot involved in WWII, specifically the Pacific Theatere as the AVG (American Air-force mercenaries) were contracted by the Chinese government training its soldiers but also in active combat against the Japanese under the guise of the 'American Volunteer Group' via Executive Order. I have serious guilt issues, even though my military family actually didn't see active combat in that conflict but were in the Bay Area at that time and (indirectly) benefited from the Property seizures from that period. Suffice this dark event is one of the main reasons why I'm anti-war. 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aU0aCc_krX8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aU0aCc_krX8