{"id":179268,"date":"2023-08-07T10:32:35","date_gmt":"2023-08-07T14:32:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/?p=179268"},"modified":"2023-08-07T10:33:19","modified_gmt":"2023-08-07T14:33:19","slug":"barbaric-atomic-bombings-confirmed-as-categorically-unnecessary-carried-out-as-psyop-against-russia-and-china","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/?p=179268","title":{"rendered":"<h2><b><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Barbaric Atomic Bombings Confirmed As Categorically Unnecessary, Carried Out As Psyop Against Russia and China<\/span><\/b><\/h2>"},"content":{"rendered":"<h1>Hiroshima, Nagasaki Bombings Were Needless, Said World War II&#8217;s Top US Military Leaders<\/h1>\n<h3>Mythology about these mass civilian slaughters warps thinking about US militarism<\/h3>\n<p><!--more-->By Brian McGlinchey<br \/>\nstarkrealities.substack.com<\/p>\n<p><strong>The anniversaries of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki present an opportunity to demolish a cornerstone myth of American history \u2014 that those twin acts of mass civilian slaughter were necessary<\/strong>\u00a0to bring about Japan\u2019s surrender, and spare a half-million US soldiers who\u2019d have otherwise died in a military conquest of the empire\u2019s home islands.<\/p>\n<p>Those who attack this mythology are often reflexively dismissed as unpatriotic, ill-informed or both. However,\u00a0<strong>the most compelling witnesses against the conventional wisdom were patriots with a unique grasp on the state of affairs in August 1945\u00a0<\/strong>\u2014 America\u2019s senior military leaders of World War II.<\/p>\n<p>Let\u2019s first hear what they had to say, and then examine key facts that led them to their little-publicized convictions:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>General Dwight Eisenhower\u00a0<\/strong>on learning of the planned bombings: \u201cI 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\u00a0<strong>dropping the bomb was completely unnecessary<\/strong>, 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 \u2018face\u2019.\u201d<\/li>\n<li><strong>Admiral William Leahy,<\/strong>\u00a0Truman&#8217;s Chief of Staff: \u201cThe use of this barbarous weapon\u2026was 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.\u201d<\/li>\n<li><strong>Major General Curtis LeMay,\u00a0<\/strong>21st Bomber Command: \u201cThe war would have been over in\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/pearlharbor.org\/blog\/america-hadnt-dropped-bombs\/\">two weeks<\/a>\u00a0without the Russians entering and without the atomic bomb\u2026<strong>The atomic bomb had nothing to do with the end of the war\u00a0<\/strong>at all.\u201d<\/li>\n<li><strong>General Hap Arnold,<\/strong>\u00a0US Army Air Forces: \u201cThe Japanese position was hopeless even before the first atomic bomb fell, because the Japanese had lost control of their own air.\u201d \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/duluthreader.com\/articles\/2015\/08\/05\/105115-no-one-saves-lives-by-dropping-bombs-on-cities\">It<\/a>\u00a0always appeared to us that, atomic bomb or no atomic bomb, the Japanese were already on the verge of collapse.\u201d<\/li>\n<li><strong>Ralph Bird,<\/strong>\u00a0Under Secretary of the Navy:\u00a0<strong>\u201cThe Japanese were ready for peace<\/strong>, and they already had approached the Russians and the Swiss\u2026In my opinion, the Japanese war was really won before we ever used the atom bomb.\u201d<\/li>\n<li><strong>Brigadier General Carter Clarke, military intelligence officer<\/strong>\u00a0who prepared summaries of intercepted cables for Truman: \u201cWhen we didn\u2019t need to do it, and we knew we didn\u2019t need to do it\u2026<strong>we used [Hiroshima and Nagasaki] as an experiment for two atomic bombs<\/strong>. Many other high-level military officers concurred.\u201d<\/li>\n<li><strong>Fleet Admiral Chester Nimitz<\/strong>, Pacific Fleet commander: \u201c<strong>The use of atomic bombs at Hiroshima and Nagasaki was of no material assistance<\/strong>\u00a0in our war against Japan. The Japanese were already defeated and ready to surrender.\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<figure class=\"caption caption-img inline-images image-style-inline-images\" role=\"group\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/assets.zerohedge.com\/s3fs-public\/styles\/inline_image_mobile\/public\/inline-images\/japan%20midget%20sub%20yard.jpeg?itok=8aYUg07S\" alt=\"\" width=\"500\" height=\"394\" data-entity-type=\"file\" data-entity-uuid=\"84a1d9cf-2d81-425b-834c-11f4b53e1555\" data-responsive-image-style=\"inline_images\" \/><figcaption><strong>Full of midget submarines, a drydock in the port city of Kure, Japan lies in ruins<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Putting out feelers through third-party diplomatic channels,\u00a0<strong>the Japanese were seeking to end the war weeks before the atomic bombings<\/strong>\u00a0on August 6 and 9, 1945. Japan\u2019s navy and air forces were decimated, and its homeland subjected to a sea blockade and allied bombing carried out against little resistance.<\/p>\n<p><strong>The Americans knew of Japan\u2019s intent to surrender<\/strong>, having intercepted\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/nsarchive.gwu.edu\/document\/28458-document-39b-magic-diplomatic-summary-war-department-office-assistant-chief-staff-g\">a July 12 cable<\/a>\u00a0from Japanese Foreign Minister Shigenori Togo, informing Japanese ambassador to Russia Naotake Sato that \u201cwe are now secretly giving consideration to the termination of the war because of the pressing situation which confronts Japan both at home and abroad.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Togo told Sato to \u201csound [Russian diplomat Vyacheslav Molotov] out on the extent to which it is possible to make use of Russia in ending the war.\u201d Togo initially told Sato to obscure Japan\u2019s interest in using Russia to end the war, but just hours later, he withdrew that instruction, saying\u00a0<strong>it would be \u201csuitable to make clear to the Russians our general attitude on ending the war\u201d<\/strong>\u2014 to include Japan\u2019s having \u201cabsolutely no idea of annexing or holding the territories which she occupied during the war.\u201d<\/p>\n<figure class=\"caption caption-img inline-images image-style-inline-images\" role=\"group\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/assets.zerohedge.com\/s3fs-public\/styles\/inline_image_mobile\/public\/inline-images\/intercepted%20cable.jpeg?itok=3L_F7ulj\" alt=\"\" width=\"500\" height=\"252\" data-entity-type=\"file\" data-entity-uuid=\"a469059c-8c8e-4d0b-8d78-21755ef45cfb\" data-responsive-image-style=\"inline_images\" \/><figcaption><strong>An excerpt from a July 12, 1945 US War Department\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/nsarchive.gwu.edu\/document\/28458-document-39b-magic-diplomatic-summary-war-department-office-assistant-chief-staff-g\">summary<\/a>\u00a0of an intercepted cable from\u00a0Japanese Foreign Minister Shigenori Togo to his ambassador to Russia<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><strong>Japan\u2019s central concern was the retention of its emperor, Hirohito,<\/strong>\u00a0who was considered a demigod. Even knowing this \u2014 and with many US officials feeling the retention of the emperor could help Japanese society through its postwar transition \u2014the Truman administration continued issuing demands for unconditional surrender, offering no assurance that the emperor would be spared humiliation or worse.<\/p>\n<p>In a\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/history.state.gov\/historicaldocuments\/frus1945Berlinv01\/d592\">July 2 memorandum<\/a>, Secretary of War Henry Stimson drafted a terms-of-surrender proclamation to be issued at the conclusion of that month\u2019s Potsdam Conference. He advised Truman that, \u201cif\u2026we should add that we do not exclude a constitutional monarchy under her present dynasty, it would substantially add to the chances of acceptance.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>Truman and Secretary of State James Byrnes, however, continued rejecting recommendations to give assurances about the emperor.<\/strong>\u00a0The final\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/ahf.nuclearmuseum.org\/ahf\/key-documents\/potsdam-declaration\/\">Potsdam Declaration<\/a>, issued July 26, omitted Stimson\u2019s recommended language, sternly declaring, \u201cFollowing are our terms. We will not deviate from them.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>One of those terms could reasonably be interpreted as jeopardizing the emperor: \u201cThere must be eliminated for all time the authority and influence of those who have deceived and misled the people of Japan into embarking on world conquest.\u201d<\/p>\n<figure class=\"caption caption-img inline-images image-style-inline-images\" role=\"group\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/assets.zerohedge.com\/s3fs-public\/styles\/inline_image_mobile\/public\/inline-images\/gettyimages-514975318.jpg?itok=dOmGCPd8\" alt=\"\" width=\"500\" height=\"500\" data-entity-type=\"file\" data-entity-uuid=\"1ebf5503-4f87-40bf-b5a7-53e40046f143\" data-responsive-image-style=\"inline_images\" \/><figcaption><strong>Japanese emperor Hirohito reigned from 1926 to 1989\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>At the same time the United States was preparing to deploy its formidable new weapons, the Soviet Union was moving armies from the European front to northeast Asia.<\/p>\n<p><strong>In May,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/history.state.gov\/historicaldocuments\/frus1945Berlinv01\/d26\">Stalin told the US ambassador<\/a>\u00a0that Soviet forces should be positioned to attack the Japanese in Manchuria by August 8.<\/strong>\u00a0In July, Truman predicted the impact of the Soviets opening a new front. In a\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/hsi.wm.edu\/cases\/bomb\/bomb_documents.html\">diary entry<\/a>\u00a0made during the Potsdam Conference, he wrote that Stalin assured him \u201che\u2019ll be in the Jap War on August 15th.<strong>\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.dictionary.com\/browse\/fini\">Fini<\/a>\u00a0Japs when that comes about.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Right on Stalin\u2019s original schedule, the Soviet Union declared war on Japan two days after the August 6 bombing of Hiroshima. That same day \u2014 August 8 \u2014 Emperor Hirohito told the country\u2019s civilian leaders that he still wanted to pursue a negotiated surrender that would preserve his reign.<\/p>\n<p><strong>On August 9, Soviet attacks commenced on\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/blog.nationalarchives.gov.uk\/soviet-japan-and-the-termination-of-the-second-world-war\/\">three fronts<\/a>.\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.theamericanconservative.com\/wholesale-slaughter-of-japanese-non-combatants-in-wwii-was-evil\/\">News of Stalin\u2019s invasion<\/a>\u00a0of Manchuria prompted Hirohito to call a new meeting to discuss surrender<\/strong>\u00a0\u2014 at 10 am, one hour before the strike on Nagasaki. The final surrender decision came on August 10.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"caption caption-img inline-images image-style-inline-images\" role=\"group\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/assets.zerohedge.com\/s3fs-public\/styles\/inline_image_mobile\/public\/inline-images\/hiroshima%20tricycle.jpeg?itok=S_mK9DmL\" alt=\"\" width=\"500\" height=\"345\" data-entity-type=\"file\" data-entity-uuid=\"7fe2b583-23ad-42b9-b441-9f55a5849df6\" data-responsive-image-style=\"inline_images\" \/><figcaption><strong>Three-year old Shinichi Tetsutani, burned as he was riding this tricycle when the atomic bomb hit Hiroshima, died a painful death that night<\/strong>\u00a0(Hiroki Kobayashi\/<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nationalgeographic.co.uk\/photography\/2020\/08\/the-elusive-horror-of-hiroshima\"><em>National Geographic<\/em><\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The Soviet timeline makes the atomic bombings all the more troubling:\u00a0<strong>One would think a US government that\u2019s appropriately hesitant to incinerate and irradiate hundreds of thousands of civilians would want to first see how a Soviet declaration of war affected Japan\u2019s calculus.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>As it turns out, the Japanese surrender indeed appears to have been prompted by the Soviet entry into the war on Japan \u2014\u00a0<em>not\u00a0<\/em>by the atomic bombs.\u00a0<strong>\u201cThe Japanese leadership never had photo or video evidence of the atomic blast<\/strong>\u00a0and considered the destruction of Hiroshima to be similar to the dozens of conventional strikes Japan had already suffered,\u201d wrote Josiah Lippincott at\u00a0<em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theamericanconservative.com\/wholesale-slaughter-of-japanese-non-combatants-in-wwii-was-evil\/\">The American Conservative<\/a><\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>Sadly,\u00a0<strong>the evidence points to a US government determined to drop atomic bombs on Japanese cities as an end in itself,<\/strong>\u00a0to such an extent that it not only ignored Japan\u2019s interest in surrender, but worked to ensure that surrender was delayed until after upwards of\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/thebulletin.org\/2020\/08\/counting-the-dead-at-hiroshima-and-nagasaki\/\">210,000 people \u2014 disproportionately women, children and elderly \u2014 were killed<\/a>\u00a0in the two cities.<\/p>\n<p>Make no mistake:\u00a0<strong>This was a deliberate targeting of civilian populations<\/strong>. Hiroshima and Nagasaki were chosen because they were pristine, and could thus fully showcase the bombs\u2019 power. Hiroshima was home to a small military headquarters, but the fact that<strong>\u00a0both cities had gone untouched by a strategic bombing campaign<\/strong>\u00a0<strong>that began\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/media.defense.gov\/2010\/Sep\/27\/2001330168\/-1\/-1\/0\/AFD-100927-081.pdf\">14 months earlier<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0certifies their military and industrial insignificance.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.zerohedge.com\/s3\/files\/inline-images\/hiroshima-national-archives-243-hp-i-45.jpg?itok=SsitKiKh\" data-image-external-href=\"\" data-image-href=\"\/s3\/files\/inline-images\/hiroshima-national-archives-243-hp-i-45.jpg?itok=SsitKiKh\" data-link-option=\"0\"><picture><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"inline-images image-style-inline-images\" src=\"https:\/\/assets.zerohedge.com\/s3fs-public\/styles\/inline_image_mobile\/public\/inline-images\/hiroshima-national-archives-243-hp-i-45.jpg?itok=SsitKiKh\" alt=\"\" width=\"500\" height=\"255\" data-entity-type=\"file\" data-entity-uuid=\"55b53c84-53b7-4b49-b836-d64716fb325a\" data-responsive-image-style=\"inline_images\" \/><\/picture><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>\u201cThe Japanese were ready to surrender and it wasn\u2019t necessary to hit them with that awful thing,\u201d<\/strong>\u00a0Eisenhower would later\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.aei.org\/op-eds\/japan-was-already-defeated-the-case-against-the-nuclear-bomb-and-for-basic-morality\/\">say<\/a>. \u201cI hated to see our country be the first to use such a weapon.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>According to his pilot,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/2021\/06\/05\/who-opposed-nuking-japan\/\">General Douglas MacArthur<\/a>, commander of US Army Forces Pacific, was \u201cappalled and depressed by this Frankenstein monster.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen I asked General MacArthur about the decision to drop the bomb,\u201d wrote journalist Norman Cousins, \u201cI was surprised to learn he had not even been consulted\u2026<strong>He saw no military justification for the dropping of the bomb<\/strong>. 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.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>What then, was the purpose of devastating Hiroshima and Nagasaki with atomic bombs?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>A key insight comes from Manhattan Project physicist Leo Szilard. In 1945, Szilard organized\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/ahf.nuclearmuseum.org\/ahf\/key-documents\/szilard-petition\/\">a petition<\/a>,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.atomicarchive.com\/history\/atomic-bombing\/hiroshima\/page-6.html\">signed<\/a>\u00a0by 70 Manhattan Project scientists, urging Truman not to use atomic bombs against Japan without first giving the country a chance to surrender, on terms that were made public.<\/p>\n<p>In May 1945, Szilard met with Secretary of State Byrnes to urge atomic restraint. Byrnes wasn\u2019t receptive to the plea. Szilard \u2014 the scientist who\u2019d drafted the pivotal\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/ahf.nuclearmuseum.org\/ahf\/key-documents\/einstein-szilard-letter\/\">1939 letter<\/a>\u00a0from Albert Einstein urging FDR to develop an atomic bomb \u2014\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/books.google.com\/books?id=_-dEEAAAQBAJ&amp;pg=PT58&amp;lpg=PT58&amp;dq=szilard+%22russian+troops+had+moved+into+hungary%22+manageable&amp;source=bl&amp;ots=wN-7Q6Y7CJ&amp;sig=ACfU3U0XeDv0DVlbYvk5TK8eK_QYE7aE-g&amp;hl=en&amp;sa=X&amp;ved=2ahUKEwidsaTYvLmAAxVTkmoFHd7HCqA4FBDoAXoECAIQAw#v=onepage&amp;q=szilard%20%22russian%20troops%20had%20moved%20into%20hungary%22%20manageable&amp;f=false\">recounted<\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>&#8220;[Byrnes] was concerned about Russia&#8217;s postwar behavior. Russian troops had moved into Hungary and Rumania, and Byrnes thought it would be very difficult to persuade Russia to withdraw her troops from these countries, that\u00a0<strong>Russia might be more manageable if impressed by American military might, and that a demonstration of the bomb might impress Russia.<\/strong>&#8220;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<figure class=\"caption caption-img inline-images image-style-inline-images\" role=\"group\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/assets.zerohedge.com\/s3fs-public\/styles\/inline_image_mobile\/public\/inline-images\/hiroshima%20burn%20victim.jpeg?itok=sVTThSey\" alt=\"\" width=\"500\" height=\"330\" data-entity-type=\"file\" data-entity-uuid=\"c1de1897-f33d-489d-a63d-0f7b13a98a33\" data-responsive-image-style=\"inline_images\" \/><figcaption><strong>Burned to impress Stalin: A victim of the US atomic bombing of Hiroshima<\/strong>\u00a0(AP \/The Association of the Photographers of the Atomic Bomb Destruction of Hiroshima, Yotsugi Kawahara)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Whether the atomic bomb\u2019s audience was in Tokyo or Moscow, some in the military establishment championed alternative ways to demonstrate its power.<\/p>\n<p>Lewis Strauss, Special Assistant to the Navy Secretary, said he\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/studylib.net\/doc\/8421323\/atomic-bombs-dbq---ottumwa-community-schools\">proposed<\/a>\u00a0\u201cthat\u00a0<strong>the weapon should be demonstrated over\u2026 a large forest of cryptomeria trees not far from Tokyo<\/strong>. The cryptomeria tree is the Japanese version of our redwood\u2026 [It] would lay the trees out in windrows from the center of the explosion in all directions as though they were matchsticks, and, of course, set them afire in the center. It seemed to me that a demonstration of this sort would prove to the Japanese that we could destroy any of their cities at will.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Strauss said Navy Secretary Forrestal \u201cagreed wholeheartedly,\u201d but\u00a0<strong>Truman ultimately decided an optimal demonstration required burning hundreds of thousands of noncombatants and laying waste to their cities<\/strong>. The buck stops there.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"caption caption-img inline-images image-style-inline-images\" role=\"group\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/assets.zerohedge.com\/s3fs-public\/styles\/inline_image_mobile\/public\/inline-images\/52.jpg?itok=h2jLS4Te\" alt=\"\" width=\"500\" height=\"401\" data-entity-type=\"file\" data-entity-uuid=\"66612c9f-72d2-49ae-8349-311546735bb6\" data-responsive-image-style=\"inline_images\" \/><figcaption><strong>A victim of the atomic bomb<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><strong>The particular means of inflicting these mass murders \u2014 a solitary object dropped from a plane at 31,000 feet \u2014 helps warp Americans\u2019 evaluation of its morality.<\/strong>\u00a0Using an analogy, historian\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/original.antiwar.com\/ralph-raico\/2009\/08\/05\/hiroshima-and-nagasaki\/\">Robert Raico<\/a>\u00a0cultivates ethical clarity:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\u201cSuppose that, when we invaded Germany in early 1945, our leaders had believed that executing all the inhabitants of Aachen, or Trier, or some other Rhineland city would finally break the will of the Germans and lead them to surrender. In this way, the war might have ended quickly, saving the lives of many Allied soldiers. Would that then have justified shooting tens of thousands of German civilians, including women and children?\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>The claim that dropping the atomic bombs saved a half-million American lives is more than just empty:\u00a0<strong>Truman\u2019s stubborn refusal to provide advance assurances about the retention of Japan\u2019s emperor arguably\u00a0<em>cost<\/em>\u00a0American lives.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>That\u2019s true not only of a war against Japan that lasted longer than it needed to, but also of a Korean War precipitated by the US-invited Soviet invasion of Japanese-held territory in northeast Asia.\u00a0<strong>More than 36,000 US service members died in the Korean War<\/strong>\u00a0\u2014 among a staggering\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/event\/Korean-War\/Back-to-the-38th-parallel\">2.5 million<\/a>\u00a0total military and civilian dead on both sides of the 38th Parallel.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/assets.zerohedge.com\/s3fs-public\/inline-images\/Manchuria_Operation_map-en.svg_.png?itok=-8ZJ0IpN\" data-image-external-href=\"\" data-image-href=\"https:\/\/assets.zerohedge.com\/s3fs-public\/inline-images\/Manchuria_Operation_map-en.svg_.png?itok=-8ZJ0IpN\" data-link-option=\"0\"><picture><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"inline-images image-style-inline-images\" src=\"https:\/\/assets.zerohedge.com\/s3fs-public\/styles\/inline_image_mobile\/public\/inline-images\/Manchuria_Operation_map-en.svg_.png?itok=-8ZJ0IpN\" alt=\"\" width=\"500\" height=\"513\" data-entity-type=\"file\" data-entity-uuid=\"03d8732f-777d-4c7c-96d2-30803d3c282f\" data-responsive-image-style=\"inline_images\" \/><\/picture><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>We like to think of our system as one in which the supremacy of civilian leaders acts as a rational, moderating force on military decisions.<\/strong>\u00a0The needless atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki \u2014 against the wishes of World War II\u2019s most revered military leaders \u2014 tells us otherwise.<\/p>\n<p>Sadly, the destructive effects of the Hiroshima myth aren\u2019t confined to Americans\u2019 understanding of events in August 1945. \u201cThere are hints and notes of the Hiroshima myth that persist all through modern times,\u201d State Department whistleblower and author Peter Van Buren said on\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=YIK8p-5DTV4\">The Scott Horton Show<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><strong>The Hiroshima myth fosters a depraved indifference to civilian casualties associated with US actions abroad,<\/strong>\u00a0whether it\u2019s women and children slaughtered in a drone strike in Afghanistan,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/watson.brown.edu\/costsofwar\/costs\/human\/civilians\/iraqi\">hundreds of thousands dead<\/a>\u00a0in an unwarranted invasion of Iraq, or a baby who dies for\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/starkrealities.substack.com\/p\/advocates-of-economic-sanctions-mirror\">lack of imported medicine<\/a>\u00a0in US-sanctioned Iran.<\/p>\n<p>Ultimately, to embrace the Hiroshima myth is to embrace a truly sinister principle: That, in the correct circumstances, it\u2019s right for governments to intentionally harm innocent civilians. Whether the harm is inflicted by bombs or sanctions, it\u2019s a philosophy that\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/starkrealities.substack.com\/p\/advocates-of-economic-sanctions-mirror\">mirrors the morality of al Qaeda<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>That\u2019s not the only thread connecting 1945 to 2023, as\u00a0<strong>Truman\u2019s insistence on unconditional surrender is echoed by the Biden administration\u2019s utter disinterest in pursuing a negotiated peace in Ukraine<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>Today, confronting an adversary with 6,000 nuclear warheads \u2014 each a thousand times more powerful than the bombs dropped on Japan \u2014\u00a0<strong>Biden\u2019s own stubborn perpetuation of war puts us all at risk of sharing the fate of Hiroshima and Nagasaki\u2019s innocents<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>___<br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/starkrealities.substack.com\/p\/hiroshima-nagasaki-bombings-were\">https:\/\/starkrealities.substack.com\/p\/hiroshima-nagasaki-bombings-were<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Hiroshima, Nagasaki Bombings Were Needless, Said World War II&#8217;s Top US Military Leaders Mythology about these mass civilian slaughters warps thinking about US militarism<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-179268","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/179268","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=179268"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/179268\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=179268"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=179268"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=179268"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}