Tragedy of Hiroshima and Nagasaki

Tōrō nagashi — floating paper lanterns — began August 6, 1947. It was copied from the traditional August Buddhist Obon festival as a consolation to the souls of the millions of Japanese citizens who perished during World War II. 

Photo by Brent Patterson.

Due to my caution about CoVid-19 at my age, I chose to not attend this year’s annual 1945 A-bombing of Japan Memorial, hosted in Ottawa by the Society of Friends. I only missed 2 since 2009. About 60 people attended.

Photo by Brent Patterson.

This year the event was held at a pond along the Rideau Canal Western Pathway, a few meters east of Queen Elizabeth Parkway, at Third Ave, a few meters north of the new Flora Footbridge that crosses the Rideau Canal. (Google map) 

The proposed footbridge with labels added and red arrow pointing to location of
the Tōrō nagashi ceremony (Image from: Support Flora Footbridge, Facebook) 

It has been 75 years since the atomic bomb was dropped by the USA on Hiroshima, followed three days later with another one on Nagasaki, resulting in over 200,000 instant deaths and many more injured and dying.

In Special coverage: Hiroshima & Nagasaki at 75, The Bulletin of Atomic Scientists, warns us that we are all living in a ‘particularly dangerous period of our nuclear age’. Civilization is at stake. Time left in January 2020 : 100 seconds to midnight.

Though there are many fine books and articles for this 75th year milestone, I don’t find convincing evidence for preventing nuclear war. Concerned citizens and world leaders need to stand up and prevent a world holocaust that would take us back to the Stone Age. These are just 6 items online that reflect my thinking:

Robert Freeman. 75 Years On: Reflections and Preflections on Hiroshima. Common Dreams, August 7, 2020. — ‘We cannot change what happened, neither the heinous military nor the tragic moral stains that indelibly mark its occurrence. But we can transcend it, rise above it, by naming it, acknowledging it, repudiating it, and committing ourselves to a greater expression of the people and society we imagine and hope ourselves to be. It is the only option for a sane, safe, and civilized future.’

PBS. 75 years after Hiroshima, should the U.S. president have the authority to launch a nuclear attack?, (USA Public television), August 5, 2020. — No U.S. President should have absolute authority to initiate a nuclear attack. Too many were mentally impaired while in office. William Parry, former Secretary of State, concluded: ‘Ronald Reagan and Gorbachev said it best, which is, a nuclear war cannot be won and must never be fought.’

Helen Caldicott. The Lessons We Haven’t Learned. The Progressive, August 3, 2020. — ‘... make friends with ... all nations and reinvest the trillions of dollars spent on war, killing, and death, saving the ... world with renewable energy including solar, wind, and geothermal, and planting trillions of trees. ... free medical care for all U.S. citizens, along with free education, housing for the homeless, and care for those with mental illness.’

Gary G. Kohls, MD. Why Americans Believe That Bombing Hiroshima Was Necessary. LewRockwell, August 1, 2015. — The American government was ‘... fully aware of Japan’s search for ways to honorably surrender months before Truman gave the fateful order to incinerate Hiroshima. Japan was working on peace negotiations through its ambassador in Moscow as early as April of 1945, with surrender feelers from Japan occurring as far back as 1944. ... all of Japan’s military and diplomatic messages were being intercepted. On July 13, 1945, Foreign Minister Togo wrote: “Unconditional surrender ... is the only obstacle to peace.” …(BUT) … ‘profiteers … Wall Street, the Pentagon, the weapons industries and their lapdogs in Congress … (did) … what is profitable or advantageous for our over-privileged, over-consumptive, toxic and unsustainable American way of life, …’

Amy Goodman and David Goodman. Atomic Bombing at 75: Hiroshima Cover-up -- How Timesman Won a Pulitzer While on War Dept. Payroll. Consortium News, August 4, 2020. Enhanced from: Hiroshima Cover-up: How the War Department's Timesman Won a Pulitzer, Common Dreams, August 10, 2004 — By boldly disobeying US military orders and censors, Australian journalist Wilfred Burchett was the first western reporter to get to Hiroshima, 30 days after the bomb, and have an uncensored eye-witness report published about an ‘atomic plague’. Burchett was extensively bullied by US agents. To negate the story, the US War Department used their hired propagandist, William L. Laurence, the Pulitzer Prize-winning science reporter for The New York Times, to deny massive deaths from radiation. ‘“Atomic Bill” Laurence revered atomic weapons.’ In 2003 the Times discussed removing a 1932 Pulitzer awarded to their Moscow bureau chief (1922–1936) Walter Duranty, but did not. This prompted the authors to recommend that Laurence’s prize be ‘stripped’.

Setsuko Thurlow. Hiroshima survivor, anti-bomb activist, and 2017 Nobel Prize winner living in Toronto, wrote a letter to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, on June 22, 2020, urging him to ‘acknowledge Canada’s involvement in and contributions to the two atomic bombings and issue a statement of regret on behalf of the Canadian Government for the immense deaths and suffering caused by the atom bombs that utterly destroyed two Japanese cities.’ She also urged him to sign the United Nations Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.

My Conclusion

Prevention. Prevention. Prevention of nuclear war is the key to world survival. Atomic wars must never be fought. Hiroshima and Nagasaki warn us of the danger if we do not act urgently and sensibly to prohibit atomic weapons development and wars.

I was 13 years old in 1945. I got the censored news on radio and newsreels at cinema. Let’s give hope to our children and grandchildren and everyone else that atomic wars must never take place, and that wars be banned as criminal behaviour.

I want an international War Prohibition Treaty! — like the 1920 League of Nations, the 1928 General Treaty for Renunciation of War as an Instrument of National Policy,  the 1933 Anti-war Treaty of Non-aggression and Conciliation, and the 2017 United Nations Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. Every country should have a well-funded Department of Peace and a nonkilling foreign and domestic policy.

See all my reports since 2009: 1945 A-bombing of Japan Memorials.

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‘Just War’ theory on the way out?

Is the ‘Just War’ theory on the way out?
Is this a turning point in history?

Recently Pope Francis of the Roman Catholic Church was given a clear message by Catholic peace leaders who came to a Rome Conference from around the world that ‘We believe there is no “just war”.’

My ancestors the Doukhobors essentially said the same thing in 1895 when they burnt their guns in Tsarist Russia. Nonkilling is the way of a civilized world.

Author and American Catholic priest nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize, Ft. John Dear, in PeaceVoice, wrote recently:

For its first three centuries, Christianity required the practice of active nonviolence as taught by Jesus. The early Christians refused to serve the Roman Empire or kill in its wars, and so they were routinely arrested and killed. All that changed in the year 313 when Emperor Constantine legalized Christianity. He baptized his troops and established Christianity as the official religion of the Empire. Christians could now serve in the Roman military and kill Rome’s enemies. In effect, he threw out the Sermon on the Mount and the commandment to love one’s enemies, and turned to the pagan Cicero to justify Christian violence, sowing the seeds for the so-called “Just War theory.” Over time, justified warfare became the norm, Christians everywhere waged war and everyone forgot that Jesus was nonviolent.

For the last 1700 years, as we all know, Christians have waged war, led crusades, burned women at the stake, systematically persecuted Jews and Muslims, kept millions of people as slaves, ran concentration camps, blessed conquest, prayed for successful bombing raids, and built and used nuclear weapons. Throughout Catholic history, Jesus’ teachings of nonviolence were rarely discussed, much less implemented.

Until last week, [when] 80 of us from 25 nations were invited to the Vatican last week for the first ever conference to discuss formally abandoning the so-called “just war” theory and formally returning the Church to the nonviolence of Jesus. This was the first ever gathering of its kind in history!

Nobel Prize winner Mairead Maguire was joyous in joining 80 people from around the world meeting in Rome from April 11th to the 14th at the ‘Nonviolence and Just Peace Conference: Contributing to the Catholic Understanding of and Commitment to Nonviolence’:

I hope that Pope Francis will call upon Catholics not to join the military and remind them that killing cannot be with Christ. I believe the misguided age of “blessing wars, militarism and killing” must end. The responsibility lies with Pope Francis and all religious/spiritual leaders to be true shepherds of peace, nonviolence and nonkilling, to help us follow the command of Jesus to love our enemies and not kill each other.

I also hope that Pope Francis will unambiguously proclaim that violence is always wrong that violence is not the way of Jesus, that Catholics cannot take up arms to kill people, and that we are called to become a true peace church.

Recall that in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus said: 'Blessed are the peacemakers, they are the sons and daughters of God. You have heard it said, thou shalt not kill. I say unto you, do not even get angry. Be reconciled. You have heard it said, an eye for eye, but I say to you, offer no violent resistance to one who does evil....Love your enemies.' Here is no just war theory, no exceptions. We follow the path of nonkilling.

As a peace activist, Tolstoyan and Doukhobor, I hope that all concerned peoples everywhere will urge their leaders to teach the gospel of nonviolence and love and start a path toward a new world of peace. The way to peace is peace, not war!


References

1. Ft. John Dear. ‘The Church’s Turn Toward Nonviolence’. Peace Voice, April 20, 2016.
2. Erica Chenoweth, Peace Force. ‘Did the Vatican Just Throw Out Its Just War Doctrine?’ Political Violence at a Glance, April 19, 2016.
3. Mairead Maguire. ‘The Rome Conference on Nonviolence: A Turning Point in History’. Common Dreams, April 20, 2016.
4. McElwee, Joshua J. 'Landmark Vatican conference rejects just war theory, asks for encyclical on nonviolence,' National Catholic Reporter, April 14, 2016.
5. Koozma J. Tarasoff. ‘Historic 1895 Burning of Guns: descriptions, selections and translations’. Updated May 1, 2015.
6. Koozma J. Tarasoff. ‘Tolstoy and the Doukhobors’. Presented at the First Global Leadership Forum on Nonkilling, Hawaii, November 1-4, 2007.
7. Books about ‘Just War’.
8. JustWarTheory.com

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More

In September 2017, at the Telos-Moscow conference, Russian and Western scholars and journalists explored 'the political questions separating Russia and the West and thus to seek ways of getting beyond the present dead end.'

University of Ottawa professor Paul Robinson presented his paper 'Institutions, Culture, and Legitimacy: what comes first?’ in which he framed the conversation by explaining 'that the two nations have entirely different interpretations of what the rules are and what they’re meant to achieve.'

'Russian realism' vs. 'Western liberalism'. ...' two separate orders '

• 'For Russia, rules are symmetrical. They apply in the same way to all sides in a conflict.'
• 'For the United States, the application of rules is asymmetrical, determined by whether a given side is deemed just or unjust.'

'This dichotomy stems from the "just war theory" ...whoever is at fault (or more at fault) for starting a given conflict, the rules of actually waging it must be the same for every participant.' ... .who gets to define what is just? And what does justice mean? .. the United States and Russia are both rational, but, ... (in) ... differing nationalities. Is there some way to bridge the difference?'

The participants explored morality, human rights, political order, humanity, constant warfare, borders, trust, demonizing Russia, Cold War and Culture War liberals, globalization, conversation for common good, hope, ...

— Grenier, Paul. "Russia, America, and the Courage to Converse," The American Conservative, January-February issue, January 15, 2018.

Support the Anti-War Movement

There is an urgent need today to be reminded that war is a crime against humanity that must be stopped. Otherwise our civilization is doomed. The cooperation of many is urgently needed to make this happen.

Today (April 5th) the International Peace Bureau (IPB) launched its annual social media message focused on the huge disparity between military and humanitarian spending:

Geneva, 5 April 2016 — Today sees the start of the Global Days of Action on Military Spending (April 5 - 18), when the International Peace Bureau and its partners around the world focus on the excessive military spending of the world's governments. … [which] last year reached $1,676 billion (USD), … The United States remained by far the world's biggest spender in 2015, … $596 billion. ..., China's … $215 billion, Saudi Arabia's ... $87.2 billion … Russia's … $66.4 billion ... (Military Costs v. Humanitarian Needs: Statement for the Global Days of Action on Military Spending 2016, International Peace Bureau, Geneva, 31 March, 2016.)

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When my Doukhobor ancestors burnt their guns in Tsarist Russia in June 1895, it was Lev N. Tolstoy who saw the merit of this act and came to their assistance. He completed his book Resurrection and used its proceeds to pay for the transport of 7,500 of the most persecuted group to Canada in 1899. As an activist in the peace movement, a Doukhobor and a follower of Tolstoy, I wholeheartedly support the nonkilling paradigm, along with many other efforts to build a world without wars.

With peace builders around the world, I call on all genuine efforts to release us from the slavery of war and create a world with meaning for a peaceful and caring humanity. Let’s get on with it!

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For background about Global Days of Action on Military Spending, I recommend readers further explore these websites and their publications.

World Beyond War — Director David Swanson, just updated his book War Is A Lie which challenges the repetitive falsehoods generated by those in power to justify armed conflict.

Center for Global Nonkilling provides important insights and tools for the creation of a world without wars. More than 100 free self-educational downloads are on their website, in many languages. In 2007 I presented a paper at CGN on the need to include Lev N. Tolstoy and the Doukhobors among the peace leaders. Tolstoy had the wisdom to search for truth and the meaning of life which he applied in becoming a world literary figure and moral leader. In his Socratic quest, he challenged social injustice. He called war: ‘the slavery of our times’. His ideas were picked up by Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr.