Hiroshima and Nagasaki Call to Obama

by John M. Curtis
(310) 204-8700

Copyright August 7, 2010
All Rights Reserved.                                

            Commemorating the Aug. 6, 1945 nuclear bombing of Hiroshima that accelerated the end of WWII, Japanese officials asked that U.S. help mark the 65th anniversary.  Survivors of the blast that killed up to 140,000 people asked that President Barack Obama attend the solemn event in “Peace Memorial Park,” close to “ground zero” where the 9,700-pound uranium bomb named “Little Boy” decimated one of Japan’s major industrial centers.  Because Barack received the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize, survivors hoped that the 49-year-old president would continue calls for nuclear disarmament.  “I admire his position of aiming to abolish nuclear weapons,” said 79-year-old atomic bomb survivor Akihiro Takahashi, former head of the Hiroshima’s Peace Memorial museum, requesting Obama’s presence with a series of letters.  Still a sore subject, the U.S. bombing stirs raw emotion.

            Imperial Japan continued its suicidal war until the U.S. followed up Hiroshima with the Aug. 9, 1945 atomic bombing in Southern Japan of Nagasaki.  “Some people want to ask for an apology, but I do not.  I think there will be no peace where there is hatred,” said Takahashi, not seeing the irony of the Japanese unconditional surrender Aug. 15, 1945.  Without the nuclear blasts at Hiroshima and Nagasaki, there’s no way to estimate how long the war in the Pacific would have lasted.  Japanese soldiers, led by the Emperor Hirohito, were prepared to fight an endless bloody guerrilla war.  Former President Harry Truman ordered the world’s only nuclear attack to finally end the war in the Pacific.  While there are certainly differences between today’s nuclear-armed world and 1945, Iran’s march toward its first A-bomb raises the high stakes of state-sponsored nuclear terrorism.

            Since the Soviets tested its first nuclear bomb in 1949, the U.S and Russia have lived under the threat of “mutual assured destruction.”  Deterrence became the name applied to the idea of “mutual assured destruction,” forcing the U.S. and Soviets to show military restraint.  Witnessing the blasts at Hiroshima and Nagasaki affected American writers, believing the world faced nuclear annihilation.  While the world faced extinction, early beat writers like Jack Kerouac, Alan Ginsberg and William Borroughs were affected by the unthinkable prospects of nuclear war.  Escalating nuclear arms race between the Soviets and U.S. culminated with former President John F. Kennedy during the Nov. 20, 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis, where he forced the Soviets to back down installing ICBMs in Cuba.  Today’s nuclear standoff with Iran promises to invite military confrontation.

            Escalating arms’ races following WW II caused what’s become known as “nuclearism,” the philosophical, political and emotional preoccupation with nuclear annihilation.  Writers like Robert J. Lifton called A-bombs “indefensible weapons,” describing unintended consequences.  Horrors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki caused social and medical scientists to study closely the lasting societal damage from atomic weapons and nuclear fallout.  “The only way to ensure [nuclear] weapons will never be used is to eliminate them all,” said U.S. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, after meeting with survivors in Nagasaki.  Ban knows that in today’s world of potential nuclear terrorism, nuclear weapons serve as a deterrent against more conventional kinds of aggression.  Since the nuclear age erupted in 1945, not one atomic-armed nation has used A-bombs other than the U.S.

            Since no U.S. president has attended yearly commemorations at Hiroshima and Nagasaki, it would be a welcomed gesture by Obama.  Generations of U.S. researchers, supported by government and private grants, have studied devastating consequences of nuclear war.  Entire institutions are committed to study ways to put the nuclear genie back in the bottle.  “That would be a wonderful opportunity to really jumpstart this process more aggressively than he [Obama] has,” said American University in Washington political science professor Peter Kuznick.  Using Hiroshima or Nagasaki as a backdrop, Obama could burnish his image as a global  peacemaker.  Faced with ugly prospects before the midterm elections, the president needs any kind of boost to his image and credibility.  Nuclear issues loom large in today’s dangerous world with Iran getting closer to joining the atomic club.

               President Obama has a rare opportunity at international diplomacy attending commemorations at Hiroshima and Nagasaki.  With the Gulf oil disaster under wraps, Barack has a golden chance to score some points on nuclear diplomacy.  Recent U.N. sanctions against Iran underscore the need for more disarmament talks and more work on nuclear nonproliferation.  “The visit will provide fodder for the administration’s domestic critics, who will to try to frame it as apology diplomacy,” said Daniel M. Kilman with the liberal Washington-based Center for a New American Security.  Going to Hiroshima and Nagasaki would be an act of great political courage Obama needs to stem his current political death by a thousand cuts.  His critics pray that the 49-year-old president forgets to use his God-given charisma that rocketed him into the Oval Office and top spot on the world stage.

About the Author    

John M. Curtis writes politically neutral commentary analyzing spin in national and global news. He's editor of OnlineColumnist.com and author of Dodging The Bullet and Operation Charisma.

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